Work starts on new Northumberland fire stations

The others are in Bishop Auckland, Spennymoor and North Shields, with the Government contributing £42m in PFI credits to assist in the construction work.

Building work starts on Monday on the two Northumberland fire stations which, together with a fire safety academy in Blyth, will replace existing stations in Blyth, Cramlington, Morpeth and Ashington.

The new community fire station and HQ building at West Hartford will be equipped with three fire engines, including a special response unit for terrorist and other incidents, and will be staffed by two full-time and one part-time crews. The building will also house a North East Ambulance Service response unit and crew.

The Pegswood facility will have three fire engines, including a high volume pumping unit for use in remote rural areas and at flooding incidents, also staffed by three crews. It will also be the base for a specialist swift water rescue team, set up to help with flood evacuations and rescues.

The shake-up was approved by Northumberland County Council in March 2006, despite strong opposition from the Fire Brigades' Union, two local Labour MPs, Wansbeck and Blyth Valley Councils and a 20,000-name protest petition.

It was claimed the changes would hit 999 response times and put lives put at risk by closing the four town-based fire stations and replacing them with two new ones.

But fire chiefs said change was needed as people in Northumberland were 17 times more likely to die in a road crash than a fire, and 70 times more likely to be rescued from a crash than a fire.

The stated aims of the reforms are to improve the efficiency of the fire and rescue service - switching the emphasis from the traditional role of putting out fires to tackling issues such as education and prevention, serious road accidents and floods.

As well as providing 999 cover, the Pegswood and West Hartford stations will be equipped to train the public in fire and community safety, and advice about these subjects will be available from experienced staff as part of a drop in service.

Yesterday Brian Hesler, Northumberland's chief fire officer, said: "We are proud to be leading the building stage of this seminal project for the North East.

"The community facilities that we will be able to provide in Northumberland's two new fire stations and HQ will allow us to improve the service we can offer to the community in terms of prevention and advice, as well as continuing to respond to incidents quickly and efficiently across the county.

"We have taken full advantage of this opportunity to seize significant Government funding for Northumberland, which in itself will create much-needed investment in the building industry during this time of economic downturn.''

Coun Ian Lindley , county council executive member for community safety, said: "This is an exciting time for Northumberland. The transformation of fire service provision is in keeping with the reorganisation we have seen in the county as a whole.

"The fire service is increasingly working to prevent incidents and it is a rich vein of expertise; building community fire stations will allow local people to tap into this expertise."