8:27pm Thursday 15th May 2008
RE: The letter two weeks ago from a 13-year-old girl complaining about the look of the fire station in High Wycombe, and asking for it to be repainted red.
IN ANSWER to Javeria Ali's letter about High Wycombe Fire Station in the Bucks Free Press, we're sorry about the appliance bay doors!
Our experience has been that new paint rapidly weathers back to the current faded colour, and unfortunately we can't justify spending the estimated £50,000 it would cost to replace them.
Over the next three years, our funding from the Government is being cut in real terms, and we face significant difficulties in maintaining the high standards of emergency response and safety advice that residents of Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes expect and deserve.
In such circumstances, we feel it would be wrong to divert what little funding we have from maintaining critical systems towards non-essential works.
The good news is that Buckinghamshire Fire & Rescue Service supports Wycombe District Council's desire to redevelop the town centre, and we are in detailed discussions with its officers over possible relocation of the fire station.
Our hope is that we will be able to move forward quickly with Wycombe District Council in providing a new fire station for High Wycombe.
Should this not be possible, we would naturally review our current position of limiting funding to essential maintenance of the station, which has itself cost more than £150,000 in the last financial year.
We would be happy to invite Javeria and other concerned residents to visit the station and discuss their concerns with us face to face, always provided of course that they are prepared to accept a return visit from our firefighters for our free home safety check!
Roy Harold, Area Manager, Property, Procurement , & Transport, Buckinghamshire Fire & Rescue Service
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