Fire Brigade Union boss warns of lives at risk due to 'betrayal' of Scottish Government cuts

dailyrecord.co.uk:

The head of the Fire Brigade Union has warned lives are at risk because of cuts to firefighter numbers, crumbling stations and outdated equipment.

In an interview with the Sunday Mail, General Secretary Matt Wrack has accused the Scottish Government of a “betrayal” for failing to properly resource the single national service created 11 years ago.Since then firefighter numbers have dropped by 1,200 - from 8,000 down to 6,800 - and he has accused ministers of cutting £70million from annual budgets.Wrack, who was in Scotland to mark the 200th anniversary of the world’s first fire service in Edinburgh, said: “We were sold the idea of a single service as a way of avoiding cuts but we have seem emergency fire control centres go down from eight to three, and we have seen over a thousand firefighters lost in Scotland.“We had a rally in George Square and I was thanked for my role in helping create the single service but the reality is that I feel in some ways a sense of betrayal in how it has been delivered.“The question is what was the real motivation, was it about finding the best way to organise the fire service, or was it about cost cutting and a political model by a particular political party, the SNP, which centralised control with the Scottish Government.“Local authorities have been completely pushed out and a board appointed by the Scottish Government is in control.

We have a good dialogue with the board but they are not democratically accountable. When we question things with the government the standard response that we receive is that it is an operational decision for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service.Get the latest news sent straight to your messages by joining our WhatsApp community today.You'll receive daily