THE Fire Brigades Union (FBU) is hosting a rally in Hereford to save fulltime 999 cover in the county.

Speakers at the Old Market event between 11am-3pm this Saturday (September 20) will outline the specific threat to that cover in the context of service cuts across the country.

Hereford & Worcester Fire & Rescue Authority  (HWFRA) votes on cutting cover next month.

A savings plan proposed by Hereford & Worcester Fire & Rescue Service sees full-time cover at Hereford station reduced to a single appliance and no more than seven fire fighters on a shift.

Those seven - presuming all are present - would be the full-time 999 response for the whole county, including the manning of specialist appliances, with Malvern as the nearest full-time back-up.

The specialist options on standby at Hereford are an aerial ladder, an incident response unit, a Land Rover 4x4, an ultra heavy rescue vehicle, a water rescue team and a water rescue vehicle.

Hereford & Worcester Fire and Rescue Authority (HWFRA) accepts that the cuts will compromise response times in the county, but, maintains that, with the county’s retained crews, enough back up is in place.

The Hereford Times recently revealed response availability at the retained stations.  

Just three of the county’s retained regular and specialist rescue fire appliances have achieved 100 per cent response availability so far this year.

Beyond those three appliances at Ross-on-Wye, Leominster and Bromyard, availability across the county’s retained stations ranges from 61 per cent to 99.8 per cent.

A lack of sufficient crew was cited as the largest reason for unavailability.

In June, HWFRA deferred a decision on cutting the cover until its meeting at Hereford Shire Hall on October 1.

Under the plan, Ledbury could keep its two appliances under deferment while the stations at Leominster, Ross-on-Wye, Bromyard and Whitchurch stay as is.

At this stage, cover from the county’s other retained stations is not affected.