Weston Fire Station is "superfluous" to the community's needs, and the Abermain and Kurri Kurri stations remain understaffed, a community meeting has been told.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
About 40 people attended the meeting at Weston Civic Centre last Friday, which was organised by Fire and Rescue NSW to address the proposed closure of the Weston station.
Fire and Rescue NSW Metropolitan North area commander, Chief Superintendent Brett Davies told the meeting the station was recommended to be closed in a review in 2015, which proposed it merge with the Abermain brigade when its new station opened.
In response to "community angst", a decision was made in January 2017 to keep the Weston station open.
However, recruiting and retaining on-call firefighters has proven difficult in recent times, and the Weston station has been offline for several months, with one firefighter retiring and others transferring to Kurri Kurri after Weston's station had become "unworkable" due to such a small number of staff.
A number of vacancies for retained (on-call) firefighters remain at the Kurri Kurri and Abermain brigades.
With Kurri Kurri (3.4km) and Abermain (3.1km) both located in close proximity to Weston, Chief Superintendent Davies said the community's need is being met by the local network of fire stations, and the Weston station is "superfluous" to those needs.
He said if the Weston station does close, all of its resources, including staff allocations and the appliance (fire truck) will be kept in the immediate area.
Some people at the meeting said the community had received "mixed messages" about recruiting, but Chief Superintendent Davies denied there had been a recruitment freeze.
Fire and Rescue NSW Assistant Commissioner Paul McGuiggan conceded there had been a lack of communication with the community, and assured those in attendance there would be consultation moving forward.
Cessnock MP Clayton Barr, who attended Friday's meeting, said it was "frustrating and unacceptable" that the station's fate appears to be sealed.
"Unfortunately there was a bit of a chicken-egg logic in terms of the decision to close the station being in part due to no staff, but then not having staff because the station was scheduled for closure," Mr Barr said.
"Weston Fire Station has been well served by volunteers and workers from the local community for 115 years and on behalf of the community at large I pass on our congratulations to all that have provided their time and service."
Mr Barr urged anyone in the community who wants to continue to advocate for the station to write to his office, and that he will forward their concerns to the minister.
"We've got to try, give it a roll, or we may as well go around there and say goodbye," he said.
Ward C councillor and lifelong Weston resident Anne Sander said she will continue to push to the keep the station open.
"We need to make sure the community has ample protection when it comes to fighting house fires and bushfires," Cr Sander said.
"We'll fight the fight until all options are exhausted, and if it is closed, we need to save the building as a community asset."
- Anyone interested in applying to become a retained firefighter can do so at fire.nsw.gov.au.
