Town councillors have criticised "illogical" and "unclear" plans to stand down firefighters at Kenilworth Fire Station.

Warwickshire Fire and Rescue Service (WFRS) is currently asking for feedback on its 'Resource to Risk' proposal, which would see the on-call model across the county scrapped in favour of so-called 'surge' teams.

This would mean Kenilworth's station would have an appliance and equipment, but would only be used on rare occasions to meet anticipated peaks in demand.

But in a letter to the service, Kenilworth Town Council (KTC) said the controversial plans threaten the safety of residents, and say there is a lot of information missing from the proposals.

"It appears that on average a surge team would be required circa every 15 months," the council's response said. 

"To classify a station as being 'open' because it is a 'surge' station is meaningless and claiming that our station is not closing is a politically convenient technicality. 

"Kenilworth Fire Station will still be there, accommodating an appliance and firefighters kit, but otherwise it will be left unattended and unused for most of the time, potentially being targeted for vandalism or burglary."

Residents have until March 10 to feed back on the scheme (image by James Smith)

Locals have until March 10 to have their say on the scheme, which fire chief Ben Brook will make sure WFRS has the most resources available during peak times.

While the town council conceded there is "no silver bullet that will solve everything," it has also called on the fire service to release more detailed figures to back up its proposed model.

"Specifically, further clarity about response times across Kenilworth is needed," the council wrote, "in particular which areas of the town will experience worse response times, by how much and what the proposed mitigating actions are."

KTC also claims most of the firefighters it has spoken to do not support the plans.

It also labelled some of the thinking around Kenilworth Fire Station "illogical" as the base has been treated the same as the other on-call stations in the region, despite receiving almost as many calls as Bidford, Shipston and Fenny Compton combined.

"A particular area of concern for residents across south-Warwickshire will be the plans for night time cover," the letter continued. 

"In the proposed option, our part of the county will have just three appliances available. 

"This is insufficient to cover more than one incident (assuming two appliances are needed). 

"We do not believe that this is an acceptable risk to take and would ask that this is changed, or contingency plans are made clearer."

Fire Chief's Say

But Warwickshire's chief fire officer Ben Brook insisted at the end of last year the plans - that will worsen response times for some areas - "will save more lives" across the board.

"It is about putting the right resources in the right places at the right times," said Mr Brook to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

"We cannot provide the same level of cover across the whole of Warwickshire with the resources we have so we are looking to put them where they are going to make the biggest difference.

"That means there isn't the same level of fire cover across the county. Where we have the most incidents involving life and property is where we will put the heaviest density of resources, where there is the least there will be less resources but still an appropriate response.

"We are being very open and transparent with our communities, right now we know they don't get a 10-minute response time, we don't achieve it."

Mr Brook also acknowledged that surge stations would lie dormant outside peaks in demand but said that is the case now at times when on-call availability is low. 

"We will guarantee a (surge) station having a fire engine with all the equipment," he added.

"The maximum time it will take us to get that appliance operational is two hours – and that's all the time, 24-7.

"That is a stronger guarantee to our public. That fire station is not available 60 per cent of the time now and I cannot bring people in.

"It might be available within 10 minutes, it could be immediate, but the fire station is open and the equipment is there to roll out in the event of a surge incident."

See the full consultation here.