Camberley Fire Station, located on London Road, currently operates two engines: a daytime cover from 7 AM to 7 PM, and a 24/7 engine.
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Shortly after the recent holidays on 5th January 2025, Camberley Fire Station had to close exceptionally; perhaps, one of them was ill. I have written to the Cabinet Member for Fire and Rescue and Resilience seeking clarification and assurances that this does not happen during future holiday seasons.
Future plans for Camberley Fire Station
Following a joint letter from Cllr Trefor Hogg and me, the Cabinet Member for Fire and Rescue and Resilience has provided clarification about Surrey County Council's plans for the future of Camberley Fire Station.
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Surrey County Council has proposed that the daytime engine, which runs from 7 AM to 7 PM, be moved to a neighbouring area within Surrey, while Camberley retains its 24/7 engine.
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As Surrey Heath has higher risks of wildfires during the summer, the proposal is to provide Surrey Heath with increased seasonal support during high-risk seasons.
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My concern is that the plan lacks detail such as how many people and within what timeline can be provided to Camberley. I would also like to see evidence that adequate and proper training is provided to all staff to tackle wildfires. One needs to only look at the recent wildfire incident in LA and its devastating impact on its local communities.
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Barossa is located in Camberley, and any wildfire in the area can be life-threatening to its neighbouring houses.
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Surrey fire rescue team have been diligent and extremely professional in protecting us all.
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My aim is for Surrey Heath to have adequate and efficient fire and emergency response capacity for any type of incident it may face.
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I have therefore written to Cllr Kevin Deanus, the Cabinet Member for Fire and Rescue and Resilience, to provide me with such detailed information. He has reassured me and written as follows:
"if a fire station temporarily doesn’t have a crew on site, this doesn’t affect SFRS’s response offer to communities as our expert teams in Joint Fire Control use advanced systems such as the Dynamic Cover Tool to ensure that our available resources are in the right place to maintain appropriate cover across Surrey. Our target is to have 16 fire engines available at night and 20 available during the day and this will not change during this CRMP. The service is able to move staff and fire engines around the county to meet the risk throughout Surrey – this is how the service has operated for many years now."
"proposal 2.1: Develop a response model which responds to changing risk and seasonal demand), as explained in the formal consultation document (which I have attached) – this aims to create an additional layer of resilience when we have periods of seasonal demand such as wildfires.
As you can imagine, seasonal incidents such as wildfires or flooding tend to be protracted, meaning that crews remain on scene for a long time. By having an additional layer of resilience, we can provide more timely reliefs for crews who are working hard at these emergencies as well as ensuring the rest of the county is appropriately crewed.
In addition, our frontline crews are highly trained individuals with specialist kit and equipment at their disposal, this additional level of resilience will enable our frontline crews to remain available for other emergency incidents.
This is an innovative way of working for our service and innovation is something that our inspectors are expecting and looking out for. This information was outlined to the Communities, Highways and Environment Select Committee on Thursday 5 December 2024 which is available to watch on Surrey County Council’s (SCC’s) website.
Should we receive approval at Cabinet later this month, each of the proposals will turn into a project and those that require a communications/engagement plan will have one, ensuring that the public are fully up to date."
Whilst his response is reassuring, I am sending him another set of questions and will update the residents on this page.
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