York fire cuts would put people at risk, warns Labour MP

The extreme high temperatures seen in July mean proposed cuts to a fire service should not go ahead, an MP has said.

Rachael Maskell, York Central Labour MP, told the home secretary she did not want "people put at risk because of a reduction in fire and rescue services".

The meeting with Priti Patel related to the way in which North Yorkshire's Fire and Rescue Service is funded.

She said the Ms Patel had been "sympathetic" to their concerns.

The county's Conservative Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner (PFCC) Zoe Metcalfe has proposed a number of changes in a risk and resource model plan.

Changes would include reduced evening cover in Scarborough and Harrogate and York's Huntington fire station would become an on-call service.

Ms Maskell said the model had "serious implications" for the city.

"Therefore I do call them cuts and I didn't hold back in highlighting that to the home secretary in front of the PFCC.

"Because of the situation with extreme heat, it's so important that the programme doesn't proceed."

Ms Metcalfe said it was not about saving money, but ensuring resources were in the right places.

"Even if we had a pot of reserves as big as some other well-funded services I would still be doing this," she said.

Ms Maskell's meeting with Ms Patel took place last week and concerned the wider issue of funding, and was attended by the chief fire officer, the county's Fire Brigade Union representative and Ms Metcalfe.

Earlier this year, it emerged years of underfunding had left the fire service battling staffing shortages, crumbling buildings and out-of-date vehicles.

According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, Ms Maskell said more cuts were inevitable unless the government changed the county's funding formula.

She said North Yorkshire loses out because it is more expensive to provide services to a large rural area and that Ms Patel had been "very sympathetic to the arguments made" at the meeting.

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