Fears remain for Manea Fire Station as decision on its future is delayed

Villagers are being urged to step up and become on-call firefighters in a bid to secure the future of the local fire station.

Manea Fire Station is facing yet another threat of closure and without action this time round the service could be lost once and for all.

Parish council chair Ben Bonos has expressed his fears over the fire station’s future and is trying to encourage more people to sign-up as members of the village on-call fire service.

His fears are echoed by MP Steve Barclay who said there have been mixed messages over the future of the fire station, located in Westfield Road, from fire chiefs.

Last year Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service announced it was looking at proposals to reallocate resources from three on-call fire stations and crew two full-time fire engines at weekends in Ely and St Neots.

Manea was one of the fire stations being looked at.

In a recent update Stuart Smith, Cambridgeshire’s assistant chief fire officer, told Manea Parish Council that trial using the village’s on-call firefighters had been running for six months, and the "the benefit of having the additional resources at weekends” has been seen.

However, he said the fire service wants to run the trial for a bit longer to see if it is sustainable moving forward.

Mr Smith said: “We have therefore decided that it would be sensible to postpone any decision on the future of Manea First Station until we have done the wider piece of work, looking at our future response service across the whole county, and how we will resource this. The availability of our on call stations will feed into this work.”

As a result any decision on the future of Manea Fire Station has been postponed until after June – but Mr Smith added: “This does not mean the future of Manea Fire Station is secure. We are still struggling with the availability of some of our on-call fire engines, including Manea, and we do not believe some are viable nor offer the best value for money for the public.

“However, we want to ensure we have a robust plan in place that will provide a better service across the county before we start to reallocate existing resources.”

Cllr Bonos fears that come the summer the fire service will announce it is consulting on the closure of Manea Fire Station, and therefore it is imperative more on-call firefighters are recruited.

“It will make it harder to close if we have a viable service with enough volunteers to ensure our fire engine can attend incidents,” said Cllr Bonos.

Cllr Bonos pointed out that Manea has had its own fire engine since 1846 and the fire station is the last remaining community-based service.

He pointed out that response times to incidents would increase if the station was to close and Manea came to rely on neighbouring services in Chatteris, March, Ely and Littleport. It is estimated to take a fire engine 18 minutes to respond from Chatteris and half-an-hour from Ely.

Mr Barclay, the North East Cambs MP, said: “I strongly support Manea Fire Station. The travel times from other fire stations in the county across Fenland roads is substantial, the Manea station itself is one of the cheapest in service, and the on-call crew offer great value for money.

“So delaying a decision until June looks suspicious - it is delaying this decision by Cambridgeshire County Councillors who sit on the Cambridgeshire Fire Authority until just after the county council elections in May. It suggests a wider piece of work is needed yet the key information on Manea has been well known for years and has not changed.

“I suggest Manea residents use their voice now, rather than wait and take their chances in June.

“Don’t wait until June, and risk a closure announcement then being made just after county councillors have been re-elected. I believe the information necessary to understand Manea Fire station's importance is available now and will not substantially change in the next three months.”

Cllr Bonos agrees with that sentiment and said there are currently six on-call firefighters in Manea, another is in training but more are needed.

“If we have a few more firefighters, it will make it harder for them to argue to close the fire station as we will have the benefit of being able to offer cover elsewhere,” he said.

On-call firefighters are volunteers, but they are also paid. The biggest requirement is to be within five minutes of the fire station for a minimum of 49 hours a week and to attend the weekly training sessions on a Thursday evening.

Cllr Bonos said: “With more people working from home there should hopefully be more people who fit the criteria and can fulfil the role. The improved phone signal from the new mast may also mean there are landworkers who can sign up as they are now contactable.”

Manea village resident, and an on-call firefighter, Roly Rimmer launched a petition online last summer to save the fire station along with the other two under-threat Sutton and Kimbolton, and it is still open for signatures.

For information on signing up to become an on-call firefighter visit Cambridgeshire Fire Service’s website.