Chief Fire Officer Huw Jakeway

Huw Jakeway at bay

In order for you to put faces to names to individuals involved in this dispute, I will be running a series of articles with images and histories of those mentioned in the press and at meetings.

So let us start at the top of the Fire Service in Wales, with Chief Fire Officer Huw Jakeway, who was appointed to his current postion in 2012 having had a variety of jobs within the service, which he joined in 1990.

Huw has an MSc in Public Management, which is supposed to build knowledge, skills and confidence for careers in the public service - if not confidence in the general public at large.

For background information, the plans to close Blaina Fire Station were presented on Monday September 23 with the fire authority voting unanimously to accept the proposals recommended in stage one of the fire cover review.  To my knowledge there was no consultation with the staff of Blaina Fire Station or with local council authorities.  If I can get a copy of the proposals then I will publish them and I would also like to know the names and qualifications of those people who wrote the proposals.
Huw Jakeway's assistant (why does he need one?) Andrew Thomas said in the South Wales Argus that the consultation for Stage Two will take place between October 1 and November 15, which is very short notice for actions that could cost lives down the road.

In fact the consultation period should not even start until after the meeting between Huw Jakeway and councillors in Ebbw Vale Civic Centre on October 7.  Hopefully at that meeting common sense will prevail and the proposal be withdrawn and ideas put forward for the location of a new asbestos free fire station near to the existing site.

Now according to the SWA, over 4,300 people have already signed the online petitions and I am fairly sure that with a little bit of effort we could probably get half a million or more but if somone could let me have the locations of the hard copy petitions that are out there for non internet users it would be useful to know.

Interesting to note that ACFO Thomas has already acknowledged that there will be an increased risk to communities although he says it will not be "significant".  One wonders how many lives have to be lost to be considered "significant" by a money orientated bean counter.  One?  Two?  Ten?  Twenty?

Remember this date for your diary and make sure your family and friends are aware of it.  There is to be a demonstration outside the Civic Centre from 12.30 pm on October 7 whilst Huw is having his meeting with the council.

Shamefully it seems that Huw is afraid to face the people of Blaina afterwards and has already reneged on his offer to speak to protestors after the meeting with the council.

You should know that if we are to save Our Station, then low numbers will be an indication to them of a lack of care and will to fight. Let us show these people what sort of stuff us Valley People are made of.  They forget that this is the part of the world that launched The Chartists.

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