Statement by Councillor Lisa Winnett

Councillor Lisa Winnett - without her leadership we would have lost

Labour Councillor Lisa Winnett, the De facto leader of the successful campaign to save Blaina Fire Station from closure in the immediate future, released the following statement late on Monday night.

I have highlighted sentences I consider to be of high importance, but be of no doubt, without Lisa, we would not have won this battle.

SWFRS have stated to me that the meeting that was due to take place in December to discuss the proposal to close Blaina's Fire Station will not take place in December.

There will be a finance meeting being held regarding next years budget (SWFRS), and it is felt that finance will have to be found for the station for next year (we will have to wait to have this confirmed when the meeting takes place).

This will then mean that Blaina's station will be open until at least the end of March 2015.

The meeting to discuss the proposals to close Blaina's Station will now be held in March 2014, as SWFRS could not address all the issues fully that have been raised during the consultation period before December.

The CFO and I had a lengthy discussion today regarding many items, and I will state that I did say that I think an amalgamation might be a way forward, the CFO did also state that he has taken this on board as I raised this with him last October.

BGCBC has offered land for a new station to be built, and as a senior officer in SWFRS Andy Davidson stated to me, they have already looked at amalgamation and that was why BGCBC offered land for this to be possible.

I really hope that we are able to keep our 5 stations in BG, but if we can't I would prefer to see two stations amalgamated into 1, for example a new building which would house x2 pumps.

Okay we now have a longer wait, but I personally feel this is very positive in the fight to save Blaina's Fire Station, and it is also good to know that SWFRS need extra time to fully address our valid concerns regarding the closure of the station.

There has been a fabulous team who have all pulled together to fight these proposals, and it has been lovely to see the community all standing together against these closures, if we hadn't done this, the station more than certainly would have faced closure in December.

Okay we still do not know the future of the station at this time, but we will continue working together, and we will all carry on with our campaign to save Blaina's Fire Station.

Yes we have made small progress, but we also need to look at the bigger picture and make sure that we save the station from closure altogether, we cannot take our eye off the bigger picture, we need to continue standing together and opposing the closure.