THIS is the first artist’s impression of the controversial new fire station which is planned to provide emergency cover for the West Kirby and Hoylake area.
Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority (MFRA) has applied for planning application for the new Saughall Massie community fire station, which is intended to replace the existing West Kirby and Upton fire stations.
Because the site is on Green Belt land, planning permission can only be granted by law if there are “very special circumstances” to allow it.
The authority has produced a detailed statement in which it starkly sets out the life or death argument for allowing the station to be built.
A vociferous local campaign has been mounted in Saughall Massie against the plan, with protesters saying it would damage the character of the village, causing a traffic hazard and a potential flood risk.
West Kirby fire station no longer offers 24 hour cover, and is due to be closed down completely by the end of 2016, thanks to government spending cuts. If the new fire station is not built, West Kirby and Hoylake will have to rely on cover from Upton.
But the fire and rescue service says the Saughall Massie site will cut the response time for emergencies in West Kirby and Hoylake by an average two minutes and five seconds compared with relying on Upton – a time gap that could cost lives or serious injuries.
The merged fire station is to be manned 24 hours a day, with one fire engine crewed by full-time firefighters and a second by retained firefighters who would only be called in to the station due to “exceptional operational requirements”.
The application reveals that the size of the proposed single storey, two bay fire station has been scaled down in response to the public protests. A training tower for fire fighters at the station is being specially designed so that it will retract when not being used, to minimise the visual impact.
The statement says the building, with a mix of standing seam cladding, glazing and vertical timber cladding, has been designed to fit in with existing agricultural barns and sheds. Existing trees are to be preserved and landscaping will be introduced.
“A Fire Station in this location would allow the MFRA to meet its 10-minute response requirements to life risk incidents and to provide a base for specialist firefighting emergency vehicles which need to be deployed rapidly in the area,” says the statement.
It adds: “The community benefits of optimising emergency service coverage to the whole West Wirral area is, in this case, considered to constitute very special circumstances that clearly outweigh the harm to the Green Belt that results from the development by reason of its inappropriateness.”
In an appendix to the report, the Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service has also produced a detailed analysis of emergency response times for West Wirral.
“Research identifies a link between response times and level of damage, severity of injury and likelihood of death,” it says. “The quicker the response, the less likely that damage will be catastrophic or that injuries and even fatalities will occur.”
It adds: “This analysis has identified that there is a high number of people above the age of 75 within the West Kirby station area compared with the rest of the borough and analysis has shown that people above this age are much more likely to be vulnerable to dying in a fire.”
It says responses to West Kirby and Hoylake would be at least two minutes quicker from Saughall Massie than from Upton. “This quicker attendance time can mean the difference in the level of damage and the severity of injury or even death.”
The analysis includes a case study of the fire in Boulton Avenue, West Kirby, on March 21 this year, which led to the deaths of elderly couple John and Anne Farrell. Mr Farrell died at the scene, and Mrs Farrell was resuscitated but died later that morning in hospital.
The report says that if Saughall Massie had been operational, the fire service response would have been at least one minute 23 seconds quicker.
“Whilst we could not with any certainty suggest this may have resulted in a life saved – it is evident that the Saughall Massie Road site provides for a quicker response into the West Kirby area by around 2 minutes.”
The report adds: “It is clear that not moving to the site at Saughall Massie Road would result in people in West Kirby, Hoylake and Meols receiving a significantly inferior emergency response than those people living in Upton.
“Even with a move to Saughall Massie Road, people living in the current Upton station area would still receive a fast emergency response; one that is on average over a minute faster than the average response throughout the whole of Merseyside.”