News / Funding for new West Mainland fire station could be included in Scottish budget
HOPES have been raised by a senior councillor that the Scottish Government could ring-fence funding for a new West Mainland fire station.
The station could be used by both the Walls and Bixter crews, as well as acting as a community hub.
The SNP government is due to deliver its budget to Holyrood tomorrow (Wednesday), with Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) one of those anxiously awaiting the outcome.
SFRS officials met community safety and resilience committee chair and vice-chair Allison Duncan and Catherine Hughson on Monday afternoon, with the dire state of several of Shetland’s fire stations up for discussion.
As many as nine fire stations in Shetland have no water facilities –Bixter, Bressay, Fair Isle, Fetlar, Hillswick, Walls, Unst, Whalsay and Yell.
With SFRS facing a financial shortfall, and with £800 million of capital improvement works needed across Scotland, it has not yet committed to repairing Shetland’s problem stations.
One suggestion on the table has been to merge Walls and Bixter fire stations, with the likelihood that a new purpose-built station would be built for the crews to share.
That could be used as a “community resilience hub”, with SFRS putting in a business case to the Scottish Government for ring-fenced funding to be used for this.
Duncan told Shetland News he was hopeful the Scottish Government would announce that funding was in place for the project tomorrow.
And he said that money could also be put forward, again ring-fenced, for work to be carried out in Bressay – described by one fire union representative as the worst station he had seen in 20 years.
Duncan said it had been a “very useful meeting” on Monday with SFRS.
“I think we’re just awaiting the outcome of the Scottish Government budget to see what they’re saying about SFRS, and then we’ll be interested in the SFRS’ budget,” he said.
“I’ll be discussing this further with the Fire Brigade Union after we know the outcome.”
The community safety and resilience committee chairman has continually threatened to report SFRS to the Health and Safety Executive if it does not urgently improve the situation at Shetland’s problem stations.
Firefighters at nine stations have no shower or toilet facilities, which has led to concerns about the health of firefighters who need to wash after attending fires – particularly if they come in to contact with asbestos.
Firefighters have been found to be 1.6 times more likely to die of cancer than the general public, according to a University of Central Lancashire study in 2023.
Duncan said his position remained the same – SFRS needs to improve the stations at once, or he will be “off to Edinburgh” to report them.
“I re-emphasised that situation yesterday,” he added.
Become a member of Shetland News
Shetland News is asking its many readers to consider paying for membership to get additional features and services: -
- Remove non-local ads;
- Bookmark posts to read later;
- Exclusive curated weekly newsletter;
- Hide membership messages;
- Comments open for discussion.
If you appreciate what we do and feel strongly about impartial local journalism, then please become a member of Shetland News by either making a single payment, or setting up a monthly, quarterly or yearly subscription.
Already a member? Sign in to hide this message.
