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Community fire stations a step closer in Staffordshire
The Fire and Rescue Authority has agreed that Fire Support is the company it would like to appoint to take forward the £46million private finance initiative project that will see seven fire stations rebuilt as well as the building of an additional three stations in areas where the Fire Authority has determined there is a need for additional resources.
All stations have been designed with a community facility and state of the art operational facilities. Stations crewed around the clock are also to include fitness facilities that can be used by supervised groups. Community groups will be able to use the facilities and the newly designed stations will also allow for more community safety activities to take place, such as Student Firefighter courses.
Chief Fire Officer/Chief Executive Peter Dartford said, “We are leading the way in the UK Fire and Rescue Service with these purpose built community embracing fire stations. Our current fire stations were built at a time when we were almost solely a reactive service just responding to emergencies, they were certainly not built for the pro-active service we are today or the Service we are going to be in the future – sitting at the heart of the community."
Steve Knight, Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service’s Programme Director said, “We started off with 18 bidders for this contract and through a detailed evaluation process we managed to whittle this down to just two bidders four months ago. Personnel from all levels and sections of the Service have been involved in the evaluation and it was a close contest with both companies, Kajima and Fire Support, producing excellent submissions.”
Bruce Dickinson representing Fire Support said, "It has been a challenging but exciting eighteen months working in conjunction with Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Authority to develop our proposals for new look community fire stations. The appointment as the preferred bidder is fantastic news for Fire Support and I would like to take this opportunity to thank all involved for their hard work and tenacity in achieving this result."
The contract will be officially signed in June next year with building commencing the following month. All new stations are expected to be built by Summer 2011.
The stations will be operational by the following dates:
Rising Brook, Stafford – June 2010
Sandyford, Stoke on Trent – July 2010
Tamworth, Belgrave - August 2010
Cannock – October 2010
Uttoxeter – December 2010
Newcastle – April 2011
Burslem – May 2011
Hanley – June 2011
Kidsgrove – June 2011
Tamworth – July 2011
The stations to be located in new areas are Tamworth, at a location in Belgrave (the existing Tamworth station will also be rebuilt on its current site), Sandyford which is located between Kidsgrove and Burslem in North Staffordshire and Rising Brook which will complement the existing station on Beaconside, Stafford.
