So they did it..
The Hertfordshire County Councillors voted on Tuesday (28 March) to close down Radlett Fire Station. The vote was 39 to 34 which was close but not close enough to save it. All the other elements of the "Community Safety Plan" were also voted through - including the closure of Bovingdon Fire Station, reducing overnight cover at Watford and getting rid of one of the three high-lift platforms and stationing the remaining two at Watford and Stevenage.
I joined the Radlett firemen and the Save Radlett Fire Station campaigners on a special Routemaster double decker bus to travel to County Hall in Hertford to attend the Council meeting. We had the overt support of our local police too, with a blue light escort part of the way!
The voting was a travesty of democracy. There had been over 3,000 letters and emails objecting to the proposals (nearly 2,000 objecting to the Radlett proposals alone). Apart from the individual residents, such letters also came from the Parish and Borough Councils and from our MP, James Clappison. But the Councillors took absolutely no notice whatsoever of the objections. It came down to mindless party politics. The opposition Labour, Lib-Dem and (lone) Green Councillors asked some searching questions about many aspects of the Plan, without getting any sensible answers in most cases. But then the "donkey" vote of the majority Conservative Councillors just voted for every aspect of the Plan regardless. With the honourable exception of Martin Saunders (who represents Radlett) and his counterpart from Bovingdon, who both made principled stands against the closures.
But there is a small light at the end of the tunnel. Instead of forcing the fire station to close at the end of the month (today!), it was given a three month reprieve to enable the Parish Council to come up with some funding to keep it open. Of course, the Parish Council can't actually run a fire station legally, but there is probably some waay it can part fund the service (I hope so anyway, as do most of the local residents I'm sure).
There is a meeting tonight of the Save Radlett Fire Station Committee - I hope they come up with something...
The Hertfordshire County Councillors voted on Tuesday (28 March) to close down Radlett Fire Station. The vote was 39 to 34 which was close but not close enough to save it. All the other elements of the "Community Safety Plan" were also voted through - including the closure of Bovingdon Fire Station, reducing overnight cover at Watford and getting rid of one of the three high-lift platforms and stationing the remaining two at Watford and Stevenage.
I joined the Radlett firemen and the Save Radlett Fire Station campaigners on a special Routemaster double decker bus to travel to County Hall in Hertford to attend the Council meeting. We had the overt support of our local police too, with a blue light escort part of the way!
The voting was a travesty of democracy. There had been over 3,000 letters and emails objecting to the proposals (nearly 2,000 objecting to the Radlett proposals alone). Apart from the individual residents, such letters also came from the Parish and Borough Councils and from our MP, James Clappison. But the Councillors took absolutely no notice whatsoever of the objections. It came down to mindless party politics. The opposition Labour, Lib-Dem and (lone) Green Councillors asked some searching questions about many aspects of the Plan, without getting any sensible answers in most cases. But then the "donkey" vote of the majority Conservative Councillors just voted for every aspect of the Plan regardless. With the honourable exception of Martin Saunders (who represents Radlett) and his counterpart from Bovingdon, who both made principled stands against the closures.
But there is a small light at the end of the tunnel. Instead of forcing the fire station to close at the end of the month (today!), it was given a three month reprieve to enable the Parish Council to come up with some funding to keep it open. Of course, the Parish Council can't actually run a fire station legally, but there is probably some waay it can part fund the service (I hope so anyway, as do most of the local residents I'm sure).
There is a meeting tonight of the Save Radlett Fire Station Committee - I hope they come up with something...
