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".

Yesterday I gave you the meat of the outcome of the Fire Authority Meeting in Llantrisant (24 March 2014) and now today, I am back to give you more details and information, and also my "perspective" of how things went and my thoughts at the time. Make a note of that word "perspective" because you are going to come across it quite a a bit in future articles.

Now I hold myself partially responsible for the meeting and the outcome and what must now follow, and I shall tell you for why.

After the complete discrediting of the Fire Services Report to support the proposal to close down Blaenau Gwents most reliable Fire Station by the evidence provided by Councillor Lisa Winnett (read previous articles), and the support shown by the local community for the retention of the life saving Fire Station, I had hoped that the Fire Service would have quietly withdrawn their shameful proposal and moved on to an easier kill.

Now that would have been the wise thing for the pretenders to the Fire Service to have done, but no, they want Blood and so went off and spent a small fortune on producing two reports totaling almost 800 pages to discredit the evidence provided by Councillor Winnett and also refute information that was posted on this website (although they do not refer to it or I directly, that is who they are referring to in the report).

Now I did say after our initial first skirmish victory, that it was possible that they (the Fire Service) would be back with a vengeance and I have been vindicated by what I said,  but suspecting that is what would follow, I allowed myself and others to rest on our laurels and sleep until this March, when really we should have been hammering home the valid and truthful points we had made in exposing the flawed and deceitful Fire Service proposal to everyone in Wales and their dog.

Because of that inaction, my inaction, we now have to fight again - fine, we learned a lesson and move on.

Fire Service's sad attempt to defend the indefensible

Now I do not intend to go through the documents submitted by the deceitful and disingenuous Fire Service to the Fire Authority in this article, this is just the foundation for what is to follow and rest assured you are going to have your eyes opened at just how deceitful, arrogant and insensitive the creatures at the top of the Fire Service they have Shanghaied really are.

As you can see from the image above the reports are quite large and a lot to take in.  (Another one of their tactics that is very transparent to old hands at this game).

However, for those of you who would like to read though the Fire Service Reports to be ready for my future articles, you can find them below.

• Fire Cover Review Phase 2.  Response to public consultation.
• Appendices to Fire Cover Review Phase 2.

Now clearly the Fire Service do not realise that bigger is not always better and the very size of the report reveals, first, how desperate they are to win and secondly, the fact that they do not care how much of OUR money they spend to achieve their goals.

As one of the Blaina Fire Fighters pointed out to me, how on earth could the Fire Authority members (with all their other duties), be expected to go through those documents in just 10 working days -  a good point and one that we can use should we have to bring in the legal eagles. So no wonder the Fire Authority passed it on for further scrutiny.

Now, finally onto the meeting and a bit more meat.

The meeting, as you already know, was held in the Fire and Rescue Services Headquarters in Llantrisant and it appears to be a very nice, comfortable and well appointed building to work in, or chat to your friends about the best McDonalds meal to eat, whilst your secretary tells the world what an important and very busy person you are.  Fair play Huw, that gave me a laugh.

Arriving before Blaina Fire Crew, I thought I would take some images of the vehicles in the two extremely large staff car parks that were both overflowing, but was warned by a friendly security guy that photographing was not permitted.

Now the Fire HQ is not a military establishment, so I fail to see what the problem was, unless of course the powers that be, do not want people like me to show you images of what appeared to be a  top of the range motor rally - and there is no doubt that the owners of those cars must be exceptionally well remunerated in order to pay the large insurance fees and fill them with petrol or diesel.

Well the troops arrived and in they marched, to be greeted by a small army of Fire Service staff and again I wondered if all of them were necessary, although I must confess they were most decorative if nothing else, but I have always preferred to see money spent on front line troops and not headquarters staff, who are tucked safely away in a luxurious mansion, miles behind the front line.

Now I was going to tell you next about the conference room itself but I think it best to write about the delegation from Blaina who were present before I forget (I do at my age).

There were five of our Fire Crew, myself, Louise Jenkins, Councillor Lisa Winnett, Margaret and Tina Griffin, the widow and daughter of national hero, Firefighter Steven Griffin, who died alongside his colleague Kevin Lane, when they entered a burning home to try and save a baby they believed to be trapped inside.

Mrs Margaret Griffin - fighting for you and your children

Now I am a tough cookie and I have taught myself not to become emotional or have feelings when it comes to fighting a campaign, but when I re-read this article over on Wales Online, I am not ashamed to say I almost had tears in my eyes when I read the words spoken by Mrs Griffin in an interview on the 19th of this month.

“The hardest thing I found was going in the station. It was heart wrenching. The last time I went in there was when the plaque was put up. I went in and was taken in the office and as you go in, you see the two empty pegs. That really upset me.”

Well Margaret, with those words, I should imagine you have upset and brought tears to the eyes of the thousands of readers of this site.  You should also be very proud of your daughter Tina, who showed she has more brains and sense than the entire Fire Service when she said:

“How many names did they actually need to keep the station open? It’s going to make no difference at all to their decision. They’ve taken no notice of it, apart from delaying it and giving us the hope they did listen to what people want.
“We live in a democracy where people have a right to speak. How many people does it take to get these things overturned?
“Is it going to take another life for things to change? They’ve already lost two firefighters, that should have been enough for them.”

Well far be it from me to differ with Tina, but the sad and painful truth is that we do not live in a democracy.  If we did, our firefighters would be able to speak and write just what they know and think about the plans to deprive them of their jobs and see them thrown on the scrapheap as a reward for saving lives and defending our community instead of being threatened with dismissal if they speak out.

Sally Chapman is known throughout Wales as Barbie - tomorrow I tell you why

The next article will be about the Fire Authority Members, Chief Fire Officer Huw Jakeway and Deputy Chief Officer Sally Chapman, who are by all accounts, now known as Barbie and Ken by fire crews across Wales.  In case you are wondering why they have been given those, not too flattering nicknames, you will have to come back later today or tomorrow to find out.

Now let me leave you with these words vowed by Mrs Margaret Griffin:

“As long as I have breath in my body, I will fight, not just for my husband and family but for the whole community."

Well Margaret, I vow the same.  I swear I will not rest or stop fighting until the politicians and Fire Service come to their senses and remove this sword they have hung over the heads of our community.

I also swear, that should these people with their common purpose prevail, then I will never cease in my pursuit to find information that can be used against them in the future and bring them down.