Fresh plea to save Edinburgh's Marionville fire station from threatened closure as campaigners highlight 'omissions' in review
Cross-party open letter urges fire bosses to halt closure plan
A fresh plea to save Edinburgh’s closure-threatened Marionville fire station has been issued by a group of community leaders and election candidates, MSPs and councillors from across the political spectrum.
The station, in Lochend, is earmarked to close permanently as part of a Scotland-wide review by the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS), with its fire engine being transferred to Newcraighall fire station.
But in an open letter to SFRS board, the group claims the proposals were based on flawed information and calls for the station to be kept open.
The letter says a Freedom of Information request has revealed there were "serious omissions" in two key review documents, the Options Appraisal and Hurdle Criteria.
It says: "Neither document nor presentation made any reference the approximately 3,500 new homes planned or already under construction within one mile of Marionville Fire Station. This includes a major 700-home development currently underway at Meadowbank, as well as a planned development at Seafield comprising 2,700 new homes and the potential extension of the tram line.
"In addition, there was no mention whatsoever of the significant developments at Leith Docks, where a government-backed re-industrialisation programme is underway, nor of the rapid proliferation of purpose-built student accommodation in the surrounding area — developments which pose a demonstrably higher fire risk than traditional domestic housing.
"We believe these omissions would have had a material impact on the decision to progress this proposal had they been properly disclosed to stakeholders during the earlier stages of the process."
And the letter accuses the Chief Fire Officer of giving a misleading reply to a letter from Lothian MSP Sarah Boyack about alternative nearby sites where a new station might be built to replace Marionville, which was built using crumbly RAAC concrete.
The review found Duddingston would be the “optimal” location for a fire station in the area, but the Chief Fire Officer told Ms Boyack there was a “lack of any affordable or suitable sites”.
But the open letter says: “Subsequent FOI responses confirm that SFRS’s appointed agent did not produce a site search report for Marionville and that SFRS has never examined a Duddingston reconfiguration for Edinburgh. It is therefore misleading to state that no suitable or affordable sites exist when no such search was undertaken.”
The letter also questions the need for urgent action due to the RAAC concrete, saying a detailed survey of Marionville fire station, released under FOI, found the station “is still in fair operational condition and otherwise fit for purpose.”
The group - which also included tenants organisation Living Rent and the Fire Brigades Union - says: “There is therefore no urgent requirement to close Marionville Fire Station, and it is misleading to suggest otherwise.”
And the letter highlights the “near-collapse” of on-call fire appliance availability across Scotland. It says: “On a daily basis, between 150 and 200 appliances are unavailable due to chronic staffing shortages.
“In Edinburgh and the Lothians, this routinely necessitates the redeployment of wholetime appliances to cover stations such as Haddington, North Berwick, and Peebles, further reducing fire cover within the Capital itself.
“FOI responses further reveal that second appliances at Crewe Toll, McDonald Road, and Sighthill were unavailable on 1,105 occasions during 2023 and 2024, despite the so-called ‘temporary withdrawal’ of ten frontline appliances in September 2023.
“Fire cover in the City of Edinburgh is already stretched beyond safe limits, and the permanent removal of a strategically located station such as Marionville would significantly worsen this situation, placing public and firefighter safety at risk.”
The group point out that responses on the proposed Marionville closure accounted for nearly a quarter of all responses to the public consultation n the review and that the Marionville responses were 10 to one against the closure.
And the letter concludes: “We believe the review process was structured in a manner that favoured a predetermined outcome, with critical information omitted at key stages that may have led to a very different conclusion. Since the proposal was advanced, multiple misleading statements have been made by SFRS to elected representatives.
“We respectfully urge the Fire Board to either reject the proposal to permanently close Marionville Fire Station or, at the very least, defer any decision until an independent review of both the proposal and the process by which it was selected can be undertaken. Such a review would be in the best interests of transparency, accountability, and, most importantly, the safety of the communities we serve.”
The letter’s signatories include former Lothian Labour MSPs Sarah Boyack and Foysol Choudhury, Conservative candidate Miles Briggs, Labour MP Chris Murray, SNP candidate Ben Macpherson, Northfield and Willowbrae community council chair Ruth Pearson, Craigentinny/Duddingston councillors Danny Aston and Joan Griffiths,FBU rep David Strachan and Claire Leadingham of Living Rent Lochend.