A MEETING of the full council in Wirral tonight will receive an official call to reject a decision to build a new fire station at Saughall Massie.

The controversial move - agreed unanimously by Merseyside Fire Authority last week - would see stations at Upton and West Kirby being axed and a merged, single unit opening up on green belt land.

A procedure called a notice of motion will be tabled by Conservative ward Cllr Chris Blakeley, a staunch opponent of the scheme.

His notice calls for the council to acknowledge overwhelming public opposition to the proposal.

It urges continued protection of Wirral’s green belt and asks the Labour administration "not to gift, sell or lease the land in Saughall Massie because of the value it has for the community."

And it asks for officers to continue to work with Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service to identify a more suitable brown field site.

Around 970 people have so far signed a petition against the move.

The merger also has been attacked by Wirral West Labour MP Margaret Greenwood, who said: "This is bad news for the people of Wirral West.

"The only two fire stations in the constituency are to close because of cuts imposed by central government on Wirral.

“This will lead to longer response times to call outs in West Kirby.

"In the event of a fire or road traffic incident, people will have to wait longer for a fire engine to arrive.

“We all hope we never have to call the fire service, but let’s be clear: the Tory cuts are whittling away at our essential services.”

Chief fire officer Dan Stephens said there would be no closures if it were it up to him, but blamed Government budget cuts for forcing his hand.

At last week's fire authority meeting, he said: "The reality of the situation is that there was no other available site.

"As a direct result of the ongoing cuts to our budget, we can no longer afford to employ the current level of firefighters or keep all our fire stations open.

"We have had to make some very difficult decisions in order to maintain the best possible response times to life risk incidents in Merseyside in the circumstances.

"We will now submit a planning application to the council."

  • A further noice of motion by council leader Phil Davies calls for Wirral MPs, as a matter of urgency, to raise the matter of fire service budget cuts with the appropriate minister "with a view to revisiting the grant allocation to stop these closures."