IN TODAY'S GAZETTE: Colchester's fire station to be replaced

8:57am Tuesday 23rd October 2012 in News

Closing? Colchester Fire Station Closing? Colchester Fire Station

COLCHESTER fire station is set to close and be replaced by two smaller out-of-town stations.

Chief fire officer David Johnson says the £1.8million cost of upgrading the fire station in Cowdray Avenue is too much, and it's in the wrong place for Colchester's expanding population.

He wants to open two smaller fire stations - one in the north and one in the south - or use existing out-of-town sites.

Full story in today's Gazette

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Comments(11)

hughie-s says...
10:51am Tue 23 Oct 12

Excellent news as it makes room for lots more tacky little boxes.

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Say It As It Is OK? says...
12:05pm Tue 23 Oct 12

Where on earth do they get figures like £1.8 million just to upgrade a working fire station? Is this just another case of the public sector not being in the real world and not being accountable for their expenditure?

Another example is ECC spending £2.1 million to build 12 travellers pitches on Severalls Lane. They all just think of a figure, double it then double it again when they go over budget!

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Boris says...
12:29pm Tue 23 Oct 12

In the wrong place? Why? It is in the centre, with good road access to everywhere.
Notice the threat ("... or use existing out-of-town sites") to do away with a fire station to cover Colchester altogether?
The editorial in the printed Gazette welcomes this proposal but I don't think the editor has thought this one through.
The FBU, quoted in the printed paper, are not happy about it, and they are right.

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greenbroker says...
12:38pm Tue 23 Oct 12

£1.8 million to redecorate, fit some new doors, upgrade the kitchen/toilets, communications equipment and a few bricks. That can't come to more than £800,000. Oh, I forgot about the party afterwards, £1 million. I might sound cynical, but that's a lot of money.

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Scoot says...
12:47pm Tue 23 Oct 12

Its not the fire brigade at fault its the greedy companies who bid for the business. Bet if it was a private property the bidder would pitch in at a much lower level than he would knowing its a public sector organisation wanting the work done.

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DShep says...
12:49pm Tue 23 Oct 12

They should be building a second fire station in the south of the town not closing the existing station and building two smaller one's

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hughie-s says...
2:55pm Tue 23 Oct 12

DShep wrote:
They should be building a second fire station in the south of the town not closing the existing station and building two smaller one's
The out of town site will be the workshop/USAR site at Lexden which for a second station to cover the west & south of the town would be ideal. No need to move from Cowdray Ave as good location for North & East and both have reasonable access to town centre.

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hughie-s says...
2:58pm Tue 23 Oct 12

Should have added if there are two you can bet one will not be 24 hours thus giving longer response times to some parts of town.

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Smouldering Ewok says...
4:20pm Tue 23 Oct 12

Look on the bright side, room for another Tesco's or McDonalds eh.

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wellnow says...
10:05am Wed 24 Oct 12

to much sensible thinking on here.

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Grabber says...
3:54pm Mon 29 Oct 12

1.8 million for a refurb who quoted that and for what work exactly ? I'm sure there are plenty of local building contractors short of work at the moment try getting a more quotes or has the land already been offered to one of the big house building company's with the promise of a fat brown envelope for someone ?

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