Will Blaina get a new Fire Station?

Lily and her friends made this.  Are we going to let them down? NO

The growth rate for this site is phenomenal and you can take that from someone who worked in the IT industry for many years before his retirement through ill health.

The numbers of visitors to the Save Blaina Fire Station site, both local to Blaina and now from the rest of the UK and even America is incredible, which goes to show the amount of support that the people of Blaina and Nantyglo have for their campaign to save their (Our) Fire Station that protects not only their lives and the lives of their children, but also their property.

The bean counters tell us that the Fire Service could save almost £250,000 of taxpayers and ratepayers money were they to close down Blaina Fire Station and whilst not a great deal of money in the great scheme of things we should look at that figure, as savings should always be made when possible - but not at the expense of lives.

So the cost of protecting the people of Nantyglo, Blaina, Abertillery, Brynmawr and even further afield when necessary, is less that £5,000 a week.

Nobody in their right mind likes paying insurance but everybody knows that it is better to have that insurance and never need it, than discover one day you are unable to replace lost possessions, because you wanted to make some short term savings and did not pay for insurance.

And that is the mistake the Fire Service senior officers are making.  In the Fire business, time is of the essence and the difference between a factory and place of employment being totally destroyed or just suffering a damaged room, is just minutes.

And it is not just property we are talking about, how much would a death cost (sorry to have to bring this up) in funeral fees, insurance payouts etc?

Somebody pays, and if I were someone who lost a loved one or a factory owner who lost a business because it was proven that the closure of my local fire station meant that a neighbouring towns fire crew arrived too late to save either, because of the distance they had to travel, then I would sue the pants of the fire service.

So as you can see - Blaina Fire Station is not just our fire damage insurance but more importantly it is our Life Insurance and we cannot afford to be without it.

With regards to insurance,  the manager of the Central Garage Blaina (Support it please) made a very good point and asked if the closure of our local Fire Station could lead to an increase in insurance premiums that local people would have to pay.  I guess the short answer to that would be, Yes.

Now in their discredited proposal, the Fire Service say:

• Blaina fire station was built in the early 60’s and requires a complete re-build due to the quantity of asbestos contained within the structure. The significant cost of re-building the station will be saved if the proposal is agreed.

Now we know that they have already stated that Asbestos was not an issue with the closure, and how strange they have never cared about it before.

What they conveniently forget to mention in their proposal, is that the money to pay for a new Fire Station on a choice of prime locations offered to them, has been ring fenced in their current budget and so should have NOTHING to do with their dangerous (to us the local people) proposal to steal the money already allocated to Our New Fire Station for some other purpose.

Now for evidence of the ring fencing of the money that has already been set aside to build a new Fire Station please read the minutes of the South Wales Fire Authority meeting that took place late last year and read section 2.8.

2.8 Blaina Rebuild

2.8.1 The Blaina rebuild is currently on the hold, pending the outcome of the fire cover review. These monies have been ring fenced and will slip forward into financial year 2013/14.

Well guys there we have it.  We know the money is there for our new station and once we have stopped their current nonsense, perhaps we should turn our attention to getting our new station built.

When we do, I am sure you will put the memorial to our boys who died in the line of duty, that now hangs in your rest room at the station, in a more prominent position at the new station so visiting members of the public and Fire Service may be reminded of the price Blaina has paid for their fire station and never try to close it again.