Firefighters made to drive miles to fire engines

On-call Chobham firefighters will have to drive four miles (6km) to Woking to reach their engines under relocation plans that have been branded “ridiculous”.

Surrey County Council says it is upgrading and modernising three of its fire stations.

While the work goes on at the Chobham site volunteers will need to drive to Woking before setting off on any emergency call.

The council said it did not expect the changes to impact on target response times.

The arrangements, which could last a year, come as a petition on Surrey County Council’s website is calling on the authority to reconsider its plan and establish a temporary station at Chobham Adventure Farm, just metres from the existing site.

Petitioner Rob Searle said: “It’s ridiculous to expect a Chobham part-time firefighter to drive to Woking to pick up their fire engine when they get a call out.

“Imagine if there is a fire in Chobham, they have to drive to Woking. They are obliged to use their own vehicles, they have no blue lights, and they are obliged to keep to speed limits.”

A spokesperson for Surrey Fire and Rescue said the decision was based on a “considerable project of work” that established the most viable location with least impact to communities and staff.

“As ever, keeping our communities safe remains our top priority and this change sits within our response standard," said the spokesperson.

“Chobham is an on-call fire station available at nights and weekends only, meaning that it’s already the case that incidents that occur in Chobham are not only attended by the Chobham-based fire appliance but by neighbouring appliances too."

The added: “Using our highly accurate modelling software the projected response times are well within our 10-minute target response time to critical incidents, and 16-minute target response time to other emergencies."

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