ON Tuesday, I spoke in the debate about the withdrawal of fire appliances at 10 stations across Scotland, including Greenock Fire Station.

I’ve been working on this issue since the changes were announced by the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) earlier this year, and have been contacted by local SFRS officers, some serving and some retired, Fire Brigade Union (FBU) officers and concerned constituents.

Like them, I was concerned about the proposals and so wrote to SFRS Chief Officer Ross Haggart along with a few MSP colleagues, met with SFRS Area Commander David McCarrey, FBU members, and recently attended a meeting with SFRS Assistant Chief Officer David Farries and the Minister for Victims and Community Safety, Siobhan Brown MSP.

I’ve listened to what each person has had to say and read intently the written correspondence I’ve received – and while I understand the SFRS’s rationale for these changes, I don’t agree with them. This is why I support the FBU’s calls to reverse these changes, as they have now been implemented.

These changes mean the aerial rescue pump at Greenock Fire Station has been replaced with a dedicated high reach appliance, as I’m told the aerial rescue pump is deployed often but used infrequently.

That may be the case, but I feel that when the dedicated high reach appliance is deployed and is needed to fight a fire from above, this will require a pump to supplement this. I also have concerns about a pump being removed and there being a greater reliance placed upon retained appliances.

I did pose the question to the Assistant Chief Officer during our meeting, if the Scottish Government were to give the SFRS extra money today, would they use this to reverse the recent changes in stations including Greenock.

He said no – the money would be used to invest in and modernise the service, as he stated these changes are not about saving money. This clearly indicated it is an operational matter and not a Scottish Government instruction.

From conversations with serving firefighters during my 16 years as an MSP, the service was working well to reduce fires through increased preventative work. I understand this has made the service susceptible to reductions as there may be the perception that there is less need due to the reduction in fires.

For this very reason though I want the prevention work to increase. Figures show that between 2011-12 and 2021-22, the number of recorded fires in Scotland dropped by 14.1 per cent, demonstrating the role of our fire and rescue service in keeping people across Scotland safe.

I firmly believe our emergency services are critical to community safety and I want to thank every single one of them for their actions keeping my constituents safe.