Edinburgh fire service cuts: Fears for public safety as Crewe Toll fire station has turntable ladder withdrawn

Cuts will leave Edinburgh with just two appliances able to reach higher than four storeys

Edinburgh’s Crewe Toll fire station is set to have its turntable ladder removed along with 10 firefighters as part of swingeing cuts across the country by the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service.

But the plan has sparked concern over public safety as the level of fire cover is reduced and resources are spread more thinly. The removal of Crewe Toll’s turntable ladder will leave Edinburgh with just two appliances able to reach higher than four storeys.

The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) has to make £36 million worth of savings over the next four years, including £11 million in 2023-24 and has announced the withdrawal of a total of 13 fire engines and around 200 job losses across Scotland. The Fire Brigades Union (FBU) Scotland says the cuts come on the back of a decade of under-investment in the service, with 1100 jobs lost in 10 years. FBU regional chair Gus Sproul said: “The fire service is in crisis already and this is going to plunge us further into that crisis. The FBU is completely opposed to these cuts.”

Edinburgh's Crewe Toll fire station is to have its turntable ladder removed as part of £11 million cuts to the fire service across Scotland. Picture: Scott Louden.

He pointed out: “Crewe Toll is surrounded by buildings over the reach of a ladder we carry on a standard fire appliance, which is 13.5 metres. That can reach the bottom sill of a fourth-floor window; anything above that would require a height appliance.”

No other Edinburgh fire station is losing an appliance, but there will be a knock-on effect from the cutbacks elsewhere. Mr Sproul said: “The effect of posts being removed in Fife and the removal of resources there means fire engines from Edinburgh will be over in that area much more often and the service will be stretched even thinner than we saw last year during the wildfires, when we ran out of fire engines and firefighters for the first time, certainly in my 23 years.”

He said in 2000, there were four height appliances in Edinburgh – at Sighthill, Crewe Toll, Tollcross and McDonald Road. “For a long time the service has been saying that's too many. Sighthill lost theirs some years back. When Crewe Toll's goes that will leave Tollcross and McDonald Road. But it doesn’t mean they're always available. They will be covering Midlothian, East Lothian and the Scottish Borders.” The next nearest height appliances would be in Dunfermline and Falkirk. And he said height appliances were used not just for rescues but also to direct water from a height onto buildings which firefighters could not enter.

Lothian Tory MSP Miles Briggs has written to the Scottish Government, raising concerns voiced to him by residents about the removal of the height appliance from Crewe Toll and the impact on public safety. He said it would mean the north west of Edinburgh would have no local capacity to carry out rescues from buildings over four floors high. And he added: “Given traffic over the past year has worsened, if a fire happens in North Edinburgh during rush hour, what are the chances that one of the other height appliances will be stuck in traffic, possibly behind a tram behind a badly parked van?”

Lothian Labour MSP Foysol Choudhury said he was shocked to hear about the cuts. He said: “£11 million cuts to our fire service this year will have a threat to public safety. I have the greatest admiration for firefighters. These cutbacks threaten jobs and services, for example the reduction of 10 firefighters and height appliance, in an area which has a large number of high rises and an increasing number of housing being built in the Waterfront.

"These cuts are a direct result of Scottish Government decisions on budget allocations to the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service. I am asking the Scottish Government to intervene, allocate funding and have discussions with the SFRS to withdraw these cuts in the interest of public safety.”

SFRS assistant chief officer David Farries said: “We have reviewed our resources and people to ensure they are best placed to protect communities across Scotland. Over the coming months we are reducing our fleet of vehicles that can operate at height on a phased basis from 26 to 16, taking ageing vehicles off the run and redeploying or introducing a series of modern, specialist vehicles dedicated specifically to dealing with such incidents.

“This decision is aligned to our ten-year operational strategy and based on robust data which tells us how busy these appliances are and the types of incidents we attend. These national assets will be strategically placed to provide appropriate coverage.”