| The North Yorkshire fire department has proposed a new fire station at Kent Street rather than Clifford Street |
The amendments will not only maintain the present benefits but also improve initial attendance times of front line fire engines, in turn, reducing the project cost.
North Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Authority are preparing to go out to public consultation to vary an existing project plan which will see fire fighting facilities upgraded across the City of York area. It is believed that the change in approach will maintain the benefits of the existing plan and therefore still improve initial attendance times of front line fire engines whilst at the same time reducing the cost of the project by around £1 million.
Deputy Chief Fire Officer Chris Anderson said “In essence what we are proposing is to build a new fire station at Kent Street rather than at Clifford Street, a matter of a few hundred metres away. Investing at Clifford Street is not a good option in comparison, as the site is subject to flooding, has no training area and has a thoroughfare running through it. The proposed change would take away the need for a retained Fire Station in the south east area of the City, as the new Kent Street location would improve turnouts to that area, it would also stop the threat of redundancies to the existing retained staff at Huntington. Response times to critical incidents such as road traffic collisions would be greatly improved in line with the original approved project.”
The consultation exercise to launched on 3rd November 2010 gives full details of the proposal and will be available on North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service’s website. It will ask whether moving to Kent Street, as the new location for the City Centre Fire Station, is a good idea, with those elements of the original plan previously agreed and consulted upon, such as moving a fire engine and aerial ladder platform to Huntington being unaffected by this proposal.