Save our Fire Services

Please see below a letter from our FBU colleagues who are fighting cuts in our local Fire service. You can find out more from their campaign site by clicking here


Dear Local Trade Union Members,

　
I am contacting you on behalf of the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) to inform you about proposed cuts to your Fire and Rescue Service.　 The East Sussex Chief Fire Officer has agreed to make £7.1 million of savings. His proposals are to achieve these savings by cutting front-line emergency services.　 By cutting fire fighters, cutting numbers of fire engines and closing fire stations.　
　

One of the proposals is to cut a fire engine from the City of Brighton and Hove. Reducing the number of fire engines within the City from five to four will lead to slower response times, less personnel, less equipment and fewer home and school fire safety visits.　 This will leave potentially just 16 firefighters protecting 250,000 residents and the hundreds of thousands of tourists who visit each year.　 These proposed cuts will cost lives.　 Even East Sussex Fire & Rescue Service's own management team recognise this!　 These cuts must not be allowed to go ahead.　
　

Savings must not be made by putting the public and firefighters lives at risk.　 The decision whether to accept these proposals and make these cuts lies with a group of elected councillors, 6 from Brighton and Hove and 12 from East Sussex County Council, who constitute East Sussex Fire Authority.　 These councillors are elected by you, the local residents, and they want to hear your views before making a final decision in June 2014.

　The FBU are asking union members members to support our campaign to protect front-line services across East Sussex. To find out more about proposed cuts in your local area please visit our website at http://saveeastsussexfireservice.co.uk/. You can also find links to our campaign’s Facebook group, Twitter feed, and petition on 38degrees.
　

Please sign the petition and tell them NO! Ask the Fire Authority to instruct East Sussex Chief Fire Officer to make necessary budgetary savings without cutting fire fighter numbers, closing fire stations and cutting fire engines. Savings can be made by sharing services and back office staff, improving procurement, and by sharing of principle management and staff.　 The Service should look to voluntary amalgamations between services and to utilise reserves to offset savings.
　

The FBU are organising public meetings (details below) to give you the opportunity to ask questions.　 Please make every effort to attend and voice your opinions about the proposals.

　

Strength in Unity,
Jake Kaye
FBU Branch Secretary (Preston Circus Station)
Our nearest public meeting will be the
Brighton and Hove Public Meeting, Brighthelm Centre, 29^th May 2014,  19:30 onwards.

AGM- Priorities for 2014

The Eastbourne Trades Council held its AGM on Tuesday 1st April, at the Unite Eastbourne Centre.

The meeting welcomed new and old delegates and supporters, and also stood for a minute's silence in honour of the recently passed Tony Benn and Bob Crow.

Val Thomas (NASUWT) was re-elected as Chair, with Georgina Hazeldine (Unite) as Vice-Chair.  Dave Brinson (NUT) was re-elected as secretary, and Gordon Dyer (Unite) as Treasurer.

The meeting welcomed new affiliates CWU (Southdowns, Weald and Rother branch) and RMT (East Sussex Coastway branch) to the Trades Council.

The meeting discussed priorities for the year- including support for:-

Workers Memorial Day, 28th April.  We will again be collecting signatures for a remembrance card in the Town Centre during the weekend before, and will be writing to all churches and places of worship in Eastbourne, asking them to mark the day.

Hastings Trades Council's Five Days in May joint event with trade unionists in Dieppe, France.  We will ensure that our banner is at the Hastings end, and will circulate information to all of our workplaces.

Supporting the Save the DGH- Option 7 campaign. The "consultation" being carried out at the moment does not allow respondents to support maternity and paediatrics being multi-sited at both Eastbourne and Hastings. We will expose this sham of a consultation, and urge our members and supporters to actively campaign for consultant-led services at both sites.

The meeting also awarded the Len Caine Award to long-standing former  Unite steward, health and safety officer and branch chair Ray Goree.  Ray is unwell at the moment, so arrangements will be made to present him with his prize soon.