MORE than 1,500 people have signed a petition calling for plans to shut a fire station to be abandoned.

The community has rallied around the Save Walney Fire Station campaign, after the station was put under threat as part of spending cuts.

Closing the station would save £60,000 from Cumbria County Council’s budget, but the suggestion has been met with a furious backlash, with residents saying it would put lives at risk and rely on firefighters travelling from longer distances to emergencies.

Under the plan the engine based at Mill Lane would be transferred to Barrow, leaving the island, which is home to 11,000 residents, without an appliance based there.

Tony Callister, chairman of Barrow’s Fire Brigades Union, said the support of the community showed why the proposal had to be scrapped.

He said: “The residents of Walney deserve to have a dedicated fire appliance. It’s a high attending appliance – it supports Barrow as a second pump and it’s very effective on its own patch.

“It’s treasured by the public and that’s shown by the petition.

“I would like to think that the people that make these decisions see that there is a groundswell of opinion from residents and they will look at altering the decision.

“Unfortunately I’ve never seen anything over the last few years of decisions being reversed due to public pressure.

“I’m just concerned the decision has been taken in an office and the consultation is a paper exercise.”

Concerns have been raised about public safety without a fire engine based on the island in circumstances when Jubilee Bridge is up.

But Councillor Barry Doughty, cabinet member for fire and rescue services at Cumbria County Council, has said there would be a fully staffed engine placed on the island during occasions when the bridge was lifted.

He said: “Safety will not be compromised at all with this move.”

Retained firefighters on Walney are expected to be offered roles in Barrow or Ulverston, however job losses are likely.

Following a meeting of members of the Fire Brigades Union last night, the crew from Walney issued a statement. 

They said: "The proposals which have been put forward to public consultation involving the five fire stations will no doubt have at some point a drastic effect on a resident of Cumbria or one of the 15.5 million tourists who visit our county each year. An essential emergency resource that was once in place will be simply not there.

"A campaign has been launched on social media through Twitter and Facebook to Save Walney Fire Station and with close to 1,500 signatures on an online petition it is gaining in momentum.

"The plan to close Walney Island’s fire station and relocate the Fire Appliance and Crew to Barrow fire station will not bode well for the communities of Walney and Barrow. Whereas the Appliance may move the Crew will still reside on Walney. 

"Currently Walney Appliance can be on its way to an incident on Walney or Barrow within 3.5 – 5 minutes of being alerted. Due to this on average the appliance is attending an incident on Walney within 5-6 minutes and 8-10 minutes in Barrow depending on the incident’s location.

"The Walney Fire Appliance has been mobilised to 130 incidents this year so far should the proposal go ahead then the Crew, when alerted, will have to travel from usually their home address on the Island to Barrow Fire Station to collect the Fire Appliance before proceeding to the incident. 

"For most of the crew this will triple both the distance and time it will take to be able to collect the Fire Appliance and proceed to the incident. The travel time to Barrow station will be drastically influenced by the amount of traffic. As the people of Barrow and Walney know it can take a considerable amount of time just to get off Jubilee Bridge (provided it's not being raised) and past BAE Systems at certain times of the day. 

"As the crew use their own vehicle, observe all road regulations and speed limits they would be stuck in traffic and unable to attend. As demonstrated at the weekend with the incident on Helmsley Drive, a fire with one initial fire appliance in attendance can become a large fire very quickly, the Walney appliance was in attendance in 8 minutes and was instrumental in

assisting the Barrow Appliance in bringing the fire under control. The outcome would have been very different had the crew been traveling to Barrow to collect the fire appliance.

"Since the cuts to the service last year with the relocation of the Enhanced Rescue Pump from Barrow to Ulverston and the closure of Dalton Fire Station, Barrow currently has one full-time fire appliance with a crew of four firefighters. 

"On station there is also an On-Call Resilience Appliance which would be removed leaving both Barrow and Walney one less fire station and one less fire appliance. This doesn’t match up with the comments made by Cumbria County Council about it improving the fire cover in the area. 

"This will without doubt have an impact on firefighter and public safety. This is big worry for the communities of Walney,Barrow and all concerned."

Walney Fire Station is one of five across the county under threat as part of a raft of measures designed to reduce spending.

The others at risk are Arnside, Staveley, Lazonby and Frizzington.

A public consultation on the changes is taking place and is due to end in January.

If the closures are approved by full council in February then they will be implemented for the 2016/17 financial year.

Between January 1 and October 20, the Walney appliance has had 123 emergency calls.

Residents can sign the Save Walney Fire Station petition by visiting  http://tinyurl.com/oah7gdz