Mike's Columns in the Portsmouth News
Copnor Fire Station closure a major blow
A major disappointment in the last few weeks has been the decision by Hampshire Fire Authority to close Copnor Fire Station – despite figures from the Fire Service showing that a large part of Portsea Island would have worse fire cover as a result. It is a decision that I don’t understand at all and I have asked responsible for the Fire Service if the Government will review it. A particular blow was that a Portsmouth Labour councillor who had said all long he would vote to keep it open changed his mind at the eleventh hour and voted for closure. If he and his Labour colleague on the Authority had voted to save it, it would have changed the vote around. The spin from the Tories has been that it was all Labour’s fault. Of course that conveniently ignores the 11 Conservative votes in favour of closure against only two who voted to keep it open. And this was despite the Tories putting leaflet after leaflet out in Portsmouth saying that the Conservatives would save Copnor. In contrast all 9 Lib Dems on the authority voted to keep the station.
Increasingly Labour and Conservatives seem to be about closing local services. The Post Office network was slashed by this Labour Government and the previous Tory one. Fire Stations are being closed. City Tories even slipped in a proposal recently to close Carnegie Library in Fratton which the Lib Dems thankfully defeated. In contrast we believe in valuing local public services. They are at the heart of our communities, and if we get rid of them we considerably weekend those very communities.
Also , since my last column, I was very sorry to learn that that former city councillor Geoff Goble has sadly past away. He was one of these people that give politicians a good name as he worked tirelessly and very determinedly for the people that he represented and would never be fobbed off by a council officer or let up on an issue until he had got progress. And I am sure that many people whom he helped will be very saddened by the news.
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