MP in last ditch plea to save Copnor Fire Station

12/02/2008

Mike Hancock, MP for Portsmouth South today launched a last ditch plea to Hampshire Fire Authority to keep Copnor Fire Station open. He has emailed the Chief Fire Officer and the Chairman of the Authority to say they should listen to the public and keep Copnor Fire Station open. Over 8,000 people have signed a petition against closure which will be given to the Authority tomorrow. Two weeks ago Mike Hancock led a delegation of campaigners and Portsmouth City Councillors to hand in a copy of the petition to the Prime Minister at 10, Downing Street. His email says:

“I am emailing you today ahead of tomorrow’s Fire Authority meeting about the issue of Copnor Fire Station. You have consulted the public in Portsmouth on this. And you will be aware that the overwhelming feeling in the city is that Copnor Fire Station should stay open. In fact I would go further than that and say that I have yet to meet a resident that wants the station to close. Indeed at the first public meeting you held, and after the chief fire officers had made their presentation there was a vote at the end with everyone voting that it should stay open with no-one voting to close it. Clearly no resident was persuaded by your presentation.

Although there was no vote at the end of a second meeting, there was an equally overwhelming feeling that the station should stay. As you will also be aware the statistics from the trial closure show that there will be a worse fire service in the city if Copnor closes. At many recent fires in the city, fire crews from Copnor have been first on the scene. I hope you will now realise that the fire station should stay open. If consulting the public means anything and is not to be seen as a sham you should now listen to them and keep Copnor Fire Station.”

Mike Hancock said: “If Copnor closes then, Portsmouth gets a worse service. The proposal will see the axing of sixteen Portsmouth firefighters. I hope that the Authority will listen to public feeling and keep Copnor open. As I said to the Chief Fire Officer at the public meeting “If you change the set-up and take Copnor out, the level of service to Portsmouth as a whole will drop according to your own statistics. It's the reality of having their cover substantially reduced that is wholly unacceptable.” They have made their case but have not been able to persuade the people of Portsmouth. I hope that they take that on board tomorrow.”

Last autumn, a proposal was put forward to take the closure of Copnor out of the Fire Authority’s plan. That would have saved the station. The voting figures then were tied and the proposal was rejected on the Conservative Chairman’s casting vote. The voting figures then were 9 (out of 9) Lib Dems, 1 Labour and 1 Conservative in favour of saving Copnor. 10 Conservatives and 1 Labour councillor were against. Last week the Lib Dems won a by-election in Copnor ward with a massive swing against the Conservatives in what was seen as a referendum on saving Copnor.

Cllr Michael Andrewes (Baffins Ward – Lib Dem) whose ward neighbours the Fire Station made a deputation to that meeting arguing that the proposal to close Copnor should be thrown out there and then. He said: “I hope the Fire Authority listens to the people in my ward and across the city and saves Copnor tomorrow. And I wish they had listened to me last year when I said they should throw out this half-baked scheme there and then. It was evident then and evident now that the city needs Copnor Fire Station.”