Hereford and Worcester Fire &?Rescue Service's Chief Fire Officer has recommended that Hereford & Worcester Fire and Rescue Authority retain both its second appliance in Ross and fire engines at Whitchurch.

Last year a draft Community Risk Management Plan (CRMP) proposed that, in order to make £4.7m worth of savings, the Fire Authority would have to either lose a fire engine from Ross Fire Station or close Whitchhurch Fire Station completely.

However, in a report which will go before Hereford & Worcester Fire and Rescue Authority in a meeting on February 19th, Mark Yates Chief Fire Officer states:?"As the basis of local government grant funding had changed from April 2013, there was a certain amount of caution in some of the estimates in the draft CRMP as the financial climate was uncertain at the time.

"There is now more certainty about some of these figures, most notably a significant increase in the council tax-base and a recommendation of the Policy Committee for a marginal increase in the Band D council tax.

"The effect of these changes is to reduce the budget gap to £4m."

Despite what could be a reprieve for the local fire crews, Mark Yates' recommendations still include removing the second whole-time crewed fire engines at both Worcester and Hereford, and the second on-call crewed fire engines at Ledbury.

For more stories in full please see this week's Ross Gazette.