The second appliance based at Rotherham Fire Station has not been staffed since spring 2017, following a decision made by South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Authority
Whilst the second fire engine located at Rotherham remains available throughout the day, it operates on a ‘on call’ schedule during the night following budget cuts
Rotherham station covers Thrybergh, Ravenfield, Canklow, Rawmarsh, Greasborough, Broom, Kimberworth, Scholes, Hooton Roberts, Dalton, Wingfield and Thorpe Hesley
During a full council meeting on 4th October, Cllr Simon Burnett asked “Could you inform me when the last review of fire cover was conducted in Rotherham?”
In response to the question, Cllr Ken Wyatt advised “Currently the service was preparing for a new Community Risk Management Plan (CRMP). As part of that process a full fire cover review in South Yorkshire would be conducted.”
A further question from Cllr Burnett asked “With the amount of housing and warehouses being built within the borough, should the second night shift at Rotherham station be a permanent night shift?”
Cllr Wyatt responded “Any re-integration of a permanent second night shift appliance at Rotherham would be based on overall risk, which would and did change over time”
“Risk is dynamic. I’m sure that incident data, intelligence, community risk profile, industrial risk, etc, changes over time. As we know, nothing stays still.
“The service considers risk across the whole service when looking at resource allocation, and any such change would be determined by the fire cover review being planned as part of the CRMP.”
