Andrew Dismore

Andrew Dismore AM, Labour London Assembly member for Barnet and Camden challenged London Fire Brigade chiefs at the Assembly plenary meeting on 4^th December.

Mr Dismore raised the damaging cuts to the Fire Brigade, especially the closures of Belsize and Clerkenwell  fire stations, with Fire Commissioner Ron Dobson, who despite accepting the cuts were financially driven, and that many parts so London would see a worse attendance time, and that those in high rise blocks might have to wait 15 minutes or more for the necessary attendance from the Fire Brigade, still maintained  that London would be safer after the cuts under the new fire plan forced through by Mayor Boris Johnson, against the wishes of the majority of the Fire Authority members (see  video at 1 hr  8 minutes)

Mr Dismore also raised the current dispute over fire service pensions, questioning why it was fair for senior officers to have more generous pensions arrangements  than firefighters on the stations. He also secured the alarming admission  that fitness standards for 60 year old front line firefighters, forced to work to that age under the Conservative led Government’s pension  cuts would  have a lower fitness standard than younger firefighters. Mr Dismore was surprised to learn that the brigade had no idea how many firefighters would be forced to retire early as a result of the cuts, even though some faced pension losses of up to 40% ( video at 19 minutes)

Mr Dismore also questioned the poor industrial relations in the fire brigade, quoting as an example the order from the Commissioner, that firefighters should not wear their fire tunics on demonstrations, as they have done for decades in the past, arguing  that the might be damaged by the weather- fire tunics designed to withstand the rigours of fire fighting and rescue operations-  the consequence being that the petrol was poured on the flames of the dispute and even more firefighters  wore them at the national pensions protest  than would otherwise be the case. (video  at 1hr 43 minutes)

 

After the meeting Mr Dismore said:

“The Fire Brigade management seems to be in  denial about the consequences  of the Mayor’s cuts, which  will be especially serious for Camden and other parts of central London. They have done no modelling of the consequences of the pension cuts being forced on firefighters by the Government; and senior officers behave as though nothing has changed over the last 30 years, as the fire service has moved from a paramilitary style of discipline to one that is more suited to a modern fire brigade, with a detrimental impact on industrial relations.

The Mayor needs to rethink his cuts package before it is too late: I welcome the legal challenge mounted  by Camden and other boroughs to try to force him to see sense. It is also vital that the Government enter into meaningful negotiations with the Fire Brigades Union to solve the long running  dispute over pensions. And senior officers ought to go on an industrial relations training course, too.”