Sanders Leads MPs Delegation to Fire Minister

Torbay MP Adrian Sanders led a cross party group of senior MPs from Devon and Somerset today to lobby the Government on next year's grant settlement for the Devon & Somerset Fire Authority.

Historic under funding following changes to the funding arrangements for Firefighter Pensions dating back to 2005 were highlighted as the main reason for the cuts to operational capacity imposed by the Fire Authority this year.

Together with Ben Bradshaw MP (Labour, Exeter) and David Heathcoat–Amory MP (Con, Wells) the Liberal Democrat MP put the case for the Fire Authority's grant to be reviewed.

Local Government Minister John Healey agreed to look again at the history of the issue and report back to MPs representing constituencies served by the Devon & Somerset Fire and Rescue Service. 

Adrian commented:

“The Minister listened to what Ben Bradshaw, David Heathcoat-Amory and I had to say and appeared genuinely interested in getting to the bottom of why this has become such an issue in Devon and Somerset