Decision Maker: Council

Outcome: Recommendations Approved

Is Key Decision?: No

Is Callable In?: No

Date of Decision: October 22, 2025

Purpose:

Content: RESOLVED: 1.      Milton Keynes City Council notes misleading claims placed into the public domain that Buckinghamshire Fire Authority has made any proposals to reduce service levels in Milton Keynes and is dismayed that early discussions between officers with employee representatives have been falsely portrayed as anything other than initial discussions over potential options for service reform. 2.      That this Council would not support any future proposals to reduce service capacity at Broughton and West Ashland fire stations. 3.             That fire service appliances require trained firefighters to crew them in order to be operational. 4.             The Council requests Buckinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service provide details of any proposals to change fire and rescue capacity in relation to new employment models and alternative, more agile firefighting vehicles. 5.             The Council asks the Cabinet Member for Community Safety to write to the Chief Fire Officer to set out why Milton Keynes City Council would not support any future proposal to reduce operational capacity at West Ashland and Broughton fire stations. 6.             The response should highlight the assurances given to Milton Keynes residents regarding fire cover by the former Chief Fire Officer when the Conservativemembers of the Conservative controlled Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes Fire Authority voted to close Great Holm and Bletchley Fire Stations, and why retaining and enhancing the current operational capacity is important, to reflect the proposed growth of the city. 7.             That the Council condemns the misinformation that local Conservative councillors in Milton Keynes and MPs in Buckinghamshire have been circulating which has unnecessarily concerned the public, and for misleading statements suggesting that initial discussions at an officer level are formal proposals that are in some way the equivalent of the disgraceful decision by the Conservative members of the Conservative controlled Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes Fire Authority to close Great Holm and Bletchley Fire Stations which reduced fire and rescue capacity and appliances in Milton Keynes. 8.             While under Conservative control, Buckinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service was given two inadequate inspection reports by HMICFRS, which consistently criticised the failure of the then Conservative-led authority to review resource levels in some areas of Buckinghamshire that are not actually genuinely operational, and that instigating hysterical and fundamentally untrue campaigns on matters of public safety is dangerous and disingenuous political opportunism with no basis in fact.