The FBU - Save Your Fire Service Petiton

Please go sign the petition once you have read the article

I will always be honest with you.  I am not totally in agreement with many issues or some of the politics that the Fire Brigade Union support or sponsor.

However, that does not mean I cannot support them on those issues where I believe their cause is just and good for the people, such as their battles for pensions and keeping fire stations open.  Both just causes that deserve all of our support and for them, both personal differences and party politics should be set aside.

Given that across the disUnited Kingdom, Fire and Rescue Services are all under attack from within, with their own Senior Officers working to a common purpose using exactly the same script as the one Huw Jakeway and Barbie Chapman are reading from in Wales, I would have liked to have seen more coordinated action from the FBU in Blaenau Gwent.

The Llantrisant Meeting - Who do you trust with your lives?

Now pay attention Huw and listen to Blaina

Right, now where were we.  Oh yes, that's right. 

Yesterday, I told you about the Blaina delegation who attended the meeting of the South Wales Fire Authority, where the Fire Authority voted to send the proposal to endanger the lives of the people of the valley by closing down Blaina Fire Station to a scrutiny committee.

Now the reactions of many people to this news, was disappointment that the Fire Authority had not rejected the proposal outright, but given the size of the the rebuttal submitted to them by the Fire Service just days before the Llantrisant meeting, I think the decision was a wise one for several different reasons.

The Llantrisant Meeting - The Blaina Delegation

Honour these men's memories and fight for our station

Good Morning (afternoon or evening - delete to suit), concerned citizens of Blaina, Abertillery and Nantyglo.  Before you settle down to read what may well turn out to be a long article/report, it would be best to go get a cup of tea or coffee first and then continue to read when that is done.

OK, I'll just have to assume you are back and continue, but I warn you now, if you cannot handle the truth and straight talking, it would be best if you left now and did something else, because as I wrote once before:

"If manners prevent me from speaking the truth, then I will be without manners".

Quick Report on the Fire Cover Review Phase 2 - Llantrisant 24 March

The boys go in to hear their fate

First up the meat, so you do not have to wait to know how the battle to defend the lives our children and grandchildren in the Blaina, Abertillery and Nantyglo area is going.

I will leave my comments and response for future articles that will now start appearing over the next few months.

Recommendation 6.3 "Members approve in principle the Fire Cover Review proposal ......to close Blaina Fire and Rescue Station subject to independent post-decision scrutiny by Blaenau Gwent County Council scrutiny committee."

The Fire Authority voted for this (no choice really) but the key word is "subject".

Recommendation 6.4  This was the vote to kick start the scrutiny exercise.

The Fire Authority voted for this obviously.

Recommendation 6.5 (The one we were really interested in)

"That a further report be brought back to Members at their September meeting detailing the outcome of the scrutiny exercise by BGC scrutiny committee for Members consideration."

The Fire Authority voted for this unanimously.

Fire Service renews attempt to close down Blaina Fire Station

Sally Chapman  and cronie who admitted their database is inaccurate

Last night, Sally Chapman, the Deputy Chief Officer of the Fire and Rescue Service in Wales, carried a message from her Common Purpose master, Chief Fire Officer Huw Jakeway to the crew of Blaina Fire Station, that he had decided (or rather been instructed) that Blaina Fire Station had to close.

Basically, what happens now is this.  Ignoring the thousands of people who filled in the Fire Service forms supporting the retention of Blaina Fire Station, the suicidal Jakeway is saying that the initial badly flawed proposal stands and that the station must close.