Fire Service Closures - Tories Should Apologise to Electors

5.19.21pm BST (GMT +0100) Mon 14th Sep 2009

Who are the hypocrites now?

In its 8th May edition one of the local papers published a letter from Cllr Alan Cockburn, a member of the Conservative Cabinet running Warwickshire County Council, branding the Liberal Democrats as hypocrites over our campaign to save the retained firefighter service at Kenilworth Fire Station.

This week the County Council has announced the results of a major review of Warwickshire Fire & Rescue Service, including the proposal to close Kenilworth Fire Station. The review, which started in March, was completed in time to be reported to a closed session of the County Cabinet at the end of July. The papers for and minutes of this meeting remain secret to this day.

Is it credible that Cllr. Cockburn, as a member of the Conservative Cabinet, was unaware in May of at least the broad thrust of the review, and that it included the closure of fire stations like Kenilworth?

Of course, in May we were in the throes of the County Council election campaign, and the last thing the Conservatives wanted to admit was that they were planning to close fire stations.

Now that the truth is revealed, Cllr Cockburn and his Conservative colleagues should apologise to the people of Warwickshire for grossly misleading them about their true intentions for the future of our fire service.