Where will these people be when the first old lady dies because some twit on a "visit" to their new socially cohesive fire station got in the way and tripped up a pump's driver, delaying their departure by 30 seconds?

It makes all the difference...

a new generation of open, accessible, inviting and ... that'll be the PH angle

Green prisons to open up to local communities?

Jacket please warder. The one with the Broad Arrow all over it.

So what happens the first time some poor, inattentive nerd wanders across to the cashpoint just as some overzealous employees try to go and do their job - or are the firefighters going to be too busy showing the locals where to park and explaining the finer points of modern art to actually fight fires any more.

Always assuming the Environmental Lobby and the Health and Safety Naz^H^H^H (sorry) busybodies don't regulate the fire engines off the road first... how long can it be 'til we return to the "good old days" of horse-drawn, hand-powered pumps?

May I (not-so-) humbly suggest the fire station nearest to Westminster be the first to receive this "quality design" review? And can someone please point me in the direction of the nearest escape route from this politically correct chicken-sh-1-t outfit?

Next time there is a meeting for the purpose of discussing pointless ideas (like the one this fire station idea was dreamed up at) and make a few changes to the room.

1) Place a handles on both sides of the door

2) Make sure the door opens inwards to the meeting

3) (Optional) Place a "pull" sign on the "push" side

Most rational people will (eventually) figure it out. These cretins will give up

"They don't meet the needs of diverse communities" - where do they get this stuff? It's a building designed to serve as a base of operations for personnel and the appliances.

Maybe it's the same person who suggested renaming "Manchester Road" (Bradford) to "Personchester Road"

I don't give a flying toss about this nonsense. What I want is for them to provide the service they're meant to! Currently they're talking about removing 24hr local fire coverage here in Falmouth (Cornwall) despite strong warnings that it will cost lives. So we are likely to lose 24hr coverage so some twat in a suit can look like he's doing something and so that Gordon Brown can use it to get one up on the Conservatives? I am furious that the government can propose nonsense like this with one hand while cutting primary services with the other.

Although it shouldn't come as a surprise, it's sad to think that someone could not only come out with this rubbish, but that it isn't meant as a joke.

One day they will wake up and realise that the whole world isn't about community relations and green impacts.

Though that will probably be as they sit in the dark, shivering, surrounded by the burnt out remains of a former metropolis.

Or preferably as they stand with their back against the wall when the revolution finally comes!

i think the best part of this story was at the end: "* NB, this is the tech angle. Thank you." <- fantastic!!

When do you think this is going to move to a "lets all go down the police station to look at the people in the cells" sort of thing? only a matter of time

AND, i dont think that making the fire stations "look nice" and "environmentally friendly" (how this is done with fire engines tearing around all over the place churnin out fumes god knows) will stop prank calls to them? maybe thats where they should start looking into. I dont care if theyre being nice to the environment as long as I can get through, and they can get out, when my house is on fire!

Having worked with one of our fire services (not "brigades" these days) for more than 10 years I know what happens when the "community" gets access to a station. The old boys will relive their childhood dream to slide down the fireman's pole resulting in broken pelvises, internal injuries and death. This sadly happened in the nineties and should be a warning to these silly planners - these buildings are designed as they are for a reason ie. they are dangerous places and not suitable for turning into community centres.

BTW it's nothing to do with socialism, Thatcher was in power when the incident happened.

The other day I had a fire so I took it to the fire station to have it extinguished. I was so intimidated by the Victorian building that I left with my blaze and dumped it by the side of the road with a load of computer discs I'd found but was too scared of the bright red post boxes to send on. If only they'd had a more appealing building...

1, Close the fire stations and move them to out-of-town industrial estates

2, Discover that turning the firestations in community centres is expensive

3, Wonder what to do with a lot of nice old buildings, in prime locations in the centre of every city. If only someone could think of an idea of how to develop them - some sort of 'developer' for instance.

You could do the same thing with hospitals and police stations.

Stupid 'solutions' to non-problems dreamt up by aparachnik labour cronies to amuse token ministers with non-jobs and an army of dopey civil servants all competing to see how much of our hard earned cash they can stuff down the shitter.

Jeez.. more pish! my god, this govt is going to the dogs...

and btw: Re: glenn smith, this govt is so far removed from socialism its not funny.

Facts straight, bullsh*t out!

</maon>

The government need to publish a White Paper on making fires illegal, with a view to creating legislation to stop fires happening. That way we'll be able to save all that money as we won't need a fire service.

Fire stations are working environments, opening them to communities would create a huge raft of problems regarding health and safety and security. Currently, visits by the public are suitably controlled and supervised for the safety of all concerned. Having them turned into some form of community centre would require more non operational staff being taken on to look after these services. Considering Fire Services are under financial pressure to cut costs, there is no way the budgets would stretch to this.

Environmentally, until some better vehicle option comes along, big diesel engined fire appliances will still be needed. But the number of these vehicles is miniscule compared to the number of lorries, 4x4 and luxury 5litre cars on our roads. Fire services have made real measurable improvements in environmental impact in the materials and vehicles they use. Firefighters are trained to protect the environment during incidents, reducing the impact from chemical spills and run-off water.

The concern is the wish to remove fire stations, on a "green" pretext, and build fewer replacement buildings that may mean cover in some areas may be less than before.

But believe me, Fire Services WANT to provide the best service possible to the public. They don't want to make cuts, they would love to expand the services they provide. But in the end, they have to work with the budget they are given.

Nice to hear you chaps in England do not have any more pressing problems to solve in your society and find time for this! May I move in?

Er, on a second thought, forget about it...

Victorian is in baby!

We opened our doors at our station to the public on select days, when we had staff on hand to monitor the visitors and make sure they weren't getting into something that could injure or kill them.

Compared to a typically "public" place, fire stations are dangerous. Most of them are filled with heavy power tools, sharp implements, and diesel soot so think that Occupational Safety wouldn't walk in to save their arses. It's a stupid idea that is going to end up taking money from their operating budget, resulting in the loss of an extra firefighter or two in each station. That's going to get people killed, both civilian and firefighters.

I'm an American, by the way. Stupid %@#^ like this starts here. Sorry guys, it's our only real export anymore.

The local small town fire service used to put on a big open day once a year.

As it happens, I was landlord of the local pub where some of them used to drink off duty, and as a result, they used to ask me to get a Special License and run a bar at their open day.

It was only a small town and if memory serves me, they only had the one engine. But there were always two engines at the open day.

One would be from the nearby city, and the other the local town engine.

I found out why when there was a 'shout' - because the local tender was instantly manned and went do deal with the emergency, whilst the city engine stayed where it was and continued to be clambered all over by the local children.

I asked the local Fire Officer why, and he told me 'Well, it looks bad if [city] fire brigade turns up, and they know that we are having an open day (piss-up) here at

the station.

The good old days before TOTAL POLITICAL CORRECTNESS took total control of our lives

....to use the flame emoticon!

Thanks

Isn't political correctness an oxymoron ?

Yep, getting my coat - exiting this country before the next "Great Fire".

Sir Thomas Bloodworth was unimpressed to be woken one night to inspect a fire. "A woman could pi** it out" was his comment on the situation at hand.

Little did he know how imortal his words would become given that

1. He was Lord Mayor of London

2. He was looking at Pudding Lane

3. It was 1666

4. Samuel Pepys was writing a diary

before Nu Labour cancels the whole fire service and just legislates for it to rain every time there's a fire. Then when it doesn't they'll be able to blame a junior civil service clerk for mislaying the paperwork

I think a lot of you may have got the wrong end of the stick with this. In Tyne and Wear, our Fire Service have built numerous new stations and are making improvements to existing stations so that they are open to their local communities.

Whilst they are making their facilities open to communities this is to non-operational areas of the station such as meeting and community rooms which can be booked when their own staff do not require them. Whilst some of the community sections of the station have windows overlooking operational areas (because people are interested in seeing firefighters train/get called out etc.) nobody can just wander into the appliance room, the offices, the watch room or the training ground etc.

With regard to firefighters time being taken from what they should 'really' be doing, this is never really the case. All of the stations open to communities are staffed by Community Safety employees who organise educational work with schools etc. and also manage the use of the community facilities.

Why are they doing this? Simply because by getting more people into stations means they can provide fire safety advice and education to members of the public they may never have had the opportunity to engage with (whether that be through talking to them, posters or interactive kiosks etc). In addition, it means fire services can consult with the public to find out what they want from a fire service and let them know that the fire service no longer just puts out fires but is now very keen on prevention of fires through home risk assessments etc.

They are not talking about open public access to the firebays where all the fire engines operate - but don't let that get in the way of your 'story'.

This is about having meeting spaces and classrooms as a part of the 'modernisation' move from intervention (putting out fires) to prevention (not having fires to put out). Getting the messages across to vulnerable groups and working with disaffected youth to prevent fires will help to further reduce the number of fires and therefore the number of casualties.

...soon the Fire Service will be renamed Icarus

Can you think of anything more fekkin stupid than encouraging the general public to spend time inside a FireStation? Apart from the fact that the station is operational and therefore likely to erupt into emergency action at a moment's notice - vital seconds KILL - ... you will obviously need to provide adequate parking, wheelchair access, tasteful information packs in 26 different languages, co-ordinated colour schemes and probably a nice coffee or wine bar serving croissants or a deli or restaurant... I know, lets build it across that big open space beside the main road - in front of those big red things - it'll look sooooooo cool - yeh - what are they? FIRE engines... mmm, Laurence, we'll rename them once we find out what they do...

Encouraging people into a place like a firestation is just an invitation to disaster... either by injury in the team's rush to get to a fire or the potential delays that can result. RAF bases don't need to have an open door policy, Hospital operating theatres are closed off (many of them are shut down admittedly but that's another rant), even police stations limit severely which bits you get to visit.

In fact only one think stands out in my mind as being remotely MORE stupid and that is to have nuclear power stations with "visitor" centres... oh phuk - too late.

> Maybe it's the same person who suggested renaming

> "Manchester Road" (Bradford) to "Personchester Road"

I think you'll find the final proposal was "Peroffspringchester Road"

With a possibility that "chest" is replaced by "uppertorso".

> Maybe it's the same person who suggested renaming "Manchester Road" (Bradford) to "Personchester Road"

The only thing worse than "Political correctness gone mad" is "Political correctness gone mad gone mad". There are plenty of real examples of PCness (this article being a prime example) to call upon that you don't need to slavishly believe whatever The Daily Mail tells you to.

ps. For those that missed it, the "Personchester" outrage never happened; it was a joke that people started forwarding as a fact, as happens so often. PCGMGM.

Here's how firefighting is managed in the confederacy of direct democracy and cheese with holes. (Sorry, no Swiss icon, alien will have to do.)

Each parish sends a tax bill for the amount agreed by the council. You know what you're paying, and if you don't want to pay, you can volunteer to be a fireman.

It might not work in England, mind - An English colleague signed on, causing havoc, because he didn't take firefighting seriously, and preferred to meet in the pub.

All these lovely old Victorian buildings are just asking to be turned into flats, while the fire service would be much better served on an industrial estate on the edge of town. If it worked for the BBC, it should be fine for the fire service... what?

This is really what we need, you are all missing the point. We now have disabled access and toilets and what was once our general office is now a community receptions, people can book our lecture room and have it would seem priority over ourselves in doing so. They have also done away with officer ranks as they are obviously to frightening a term for members of the public and scare away possible recruits so they are now managers. I suggest you go down to your local fire station and have a look at it before it disappears it's a great place to spend a day if all your paint is dry. I am sure some fool will come on and say fire fighters should be there to rescue people, O if only we had not been modernised that would be true.!

as quoted by a senior management type

"itellectual masturbation"

kind of sums this up.

If these ideas and plans had been proposed by the Firemen and Fire Departments of the nation, then I might have given them some attention; but instead they come from Government sponsored suits that have never fought a fire or been in a fire in their lives! The closest these people have ever been to a flame is their Zippo lighter or gas hob...

So.

Why the Fuck does this government insist on interfering where no interference is necessary?