Petition launched in bid to save fire stations
by Karen Downey Updated: Friday, 25th September, 2009 9:00am
A petition to save three fire stations in Offaly from closure was started this week by Independent county councillor John Leahy, after it emerged at Monday's Offaly County Council meeting that the council planned to close the stations as it can't afford to keep them open.
A former firefighter himself, Cllr Leahy has spearheaded a campaign to save fire stations in Kilcormac, Banagher and Daingean, sending out petitions to the three areas affected.
In the region of 800 people have already signed the petition to keep the three stations open.
The council plans to reduce the number of fire stations in the county from eight to five, saying due to budget restrictions and the recruitment ban it would not be feasible to keep the stations in Banagher, Kilcormac and Daingean open as the council believes that the cover would not satisfy best international standards.
Banagher Fire Station currently has five firefighters, but eight are needed; Kilcormac has only two, where eight are needed and Daingean has four, rather than the six required.
Director of Services Frank Heslin told councillors that the budget for fire services was €3.3m, but an additional €530,000 a year would be needed to keep all eight stations open, in addition to a capital investment of €1.7m.
However, Cllr Leahy has disputed the figure for capital investment.
He said this figure would cover new appliances for all three stations, which he said were not needed, explaining that Daingean had got a new appliance last year. Cllr Leahy admitted that some works would be necessary at the fire stations, but said these works would not cost €1.7m.
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