People Before Profit activists in Dundalk have been investigating what exactly is happening with regards to local fireservices. It was reported quite a while ago in the local media that fire staff had been sent a letter by local council officials reminding them of their duty to be silent on the issue of reforms being planned for the fire station. Since then things have been silent and the public have been left in the dark.
What we have discovered over the last number of weeks is that council officials had originally proposed to reduce services, closing the station in the late evening and leaving the people of Dundalk without any local service. Fire personnel, passionate to keep a twenty four hour, seven day a week service, worked on a counter-proposal and have come up with a plan that would reduce costs and maintain a reasonable 24/7 service. One would have thought that this would settle the matter but we understand that a company from Scotland are presently carrying out an analysis of the service and although their report is not said to be definitive, one must wonder at the need for an expensive report when our own and best have already come up with cost cutting proposals that don't affect services.
Apart from the worry of cuts to our fire services, how the pubic have been excluded from the negotiations and indeed partitioned from any information on what's happening reflects a serious disrespect for their right to be involved in the planning of their own services. We have asked a number of councillor what's happening and they don't seem to know nor has anyone tried to involve them in the process.
Members of People Before Profit Dundalk have applied for all information regarding the fire services in Dundalk through the FOI process and will keep the public informed of developments. We also intend on lobbying the agents involved in the possible reforms and if necessary call for protest and acts of civil disobedience if the public continue to be excluded from the table and/or grapevine.
No comments:
Post a Comment