Fire chiefs in Merseyside have revealed plans to increase the number of firefighters as they vow to ‘bite back against austerity’.
Merseyside Fire and Rescue wants to raise recruits from 620 to 640 despite government cutbacks.
They also want to boost the number of available fire engines from 26 to 30.
Chief Fire Officer Phil Garrigan has described the proposal as “challenging but achievable” and he has vowed to find the necessary money to carry out the plans “by thinking differently.”
In his recent address to the Fire Authority he described a ‘repositioning of organisational risk which was not reliant on the realisation of unachievable government funding – rather the creative use of existing funding to protect the frontline’.
He said he was confident his plans would make the service more resilient and better able to respond to emerging risks – such as the heightened terrorist threat, tower block risk following the Grenfell fire and marine risk due to more ships using the River Mersey to access the docks and cruise liner terminal
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