Common Sense and Council Services
The Herald published an excellent letter from a retired firefighter the other day.
Here's what he had to say - and you have to admit it's the perfect riposte to council bosses and bureaucrats - with their overblown 'respect' agenda.
A little less 'respect' and a big injection of common sense then - as the retired firefighter says - we'll start getting somewhere.
"Firefighters care about saving lives, not which authority employs them"
"As a retired member of the Fire and Rescue Service, I must reply to Pat Watters and his assertions concerning a Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (“Cosla chief: Government lacks respect”, The Herald, February 1).
I worked for more than 30 years in a Glasgow city centre station and at no time worried whether Strathclyde Fire and Rescue Service or Glasgow City Council paid me, what the name on the engine was, or the construction of the eight Fire Boards in Scotland. I did have concerns about the number of fire fighters, what equipment we carried and whether we could be mobilised and arrive at an incident in time to make a difference.
The political parties in Holyrood say the status quo is not an option, the Fire Brigade Union say it will be easier to protect front-line posts if we start the process now but the chief officers and the fire board conveners are determined to find a way that protects themselves.
It is time for this game to end. During my service, nearly all matters relating to the fire service were dealt with by the chief officer, with the board rubber-stamping his decisions.
This begged the question, why were the boards there at all?
On querying this with a councillor, I was told: “We’re not qualified to second guess the chief.” Yet there are eight chiefs with some 100-odd councillors spending their time and our money duplicating lots of actions across Scotland. They do this as a stand-alone part of the local government family, where even the full council cannot make them change their minds. So much for local accountability.
The Fire Service in London protects 11 million people, in Scotland we have eight separate services to protect five million of us, with 50% of the population covered by one service.
I think I know where the public would want any compulsory savings to be made.
JD
Glasgow."
Here's what he had to say - and you have to admit it's the perfect riposte to council bosses and bureaucrats - with their overblown 'respect' agenda.
A little less 'respect' and a big injection of common sense then - as the retired firefighter says - we'll start getting somewhere.
"Firefighters care about saving lives, not which authority employs them"
"As a retired member of the Fire and Rescue Service, I must reply to Pat Watters and his assertions concerning a Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (“Cosla chief: Government lacks respect”, The Herald, February 1).
I worked for more than 30 years in a Glasgow city centre station and at no time worried whether Strathclyde Fire and Rescue Service or Glasgow City Council paid me, what the name on the engine was, or the construction of the eight Fire Boards in Scotland. I did have concerns about the number of fire fighters, what equipment we carried and whether we could be mobilised and arrive at an incident in time to make a difference.
The political parties in Holyrood say the status quo is not an option, the Fire Brigade Union say it will be easier to protect front-line posts if we start the process now but the chief officers and the fire board conveners are determined to find a way that protects themselves.
It is time for this game to end. During my service, nearly all matters relating to the fire service were dealt with by the chief officer, with the board rubber-stamping his decisions.
This begged the question, why were the boards there at all?
On querying this with a councillor, I was told: “We’re not qualified to second guess the chief.” Yet there are eight chiefs with some 100-odd councillors spending their time and our money duplicating lots of actions across Scotland. They do this as a stand-alone part of the local government family, where even the full council cannot make them change their minds. So much for local accountability.
The Fire Service in London protects 11 million people, in Scotland we have eight separate services to protect five million of us, with 50% of the population covered by one service.
I think I know where the public would want any compulsory savings to be made.
JD
Glasgow."
