Firefighters from the Kingsland Road Station marched to Parliament on Wednesday 16 October, joining thousands who came from across the country to protest cuts being made to fire fighting services nationwide.
They marched while knowing that the fate of their own station currently hangs in the balance. A High Court battle on 26-28 November will be Hackney Council’s last ditch attempt to save the station, which is slated for closure in January 2014.
The council has partnered with six other local authorities whose stations are also under threat, and launched an application for a judicial review earlier this month.
Cllr Sophie Linden, deputy mayor of Hackney, said in a statement: “We believe that the Mayor of London’s decision is flawed and that he has acted unlawfully in disregarding legal processes and ignoring safety concerns to force cuts through.”
Paul Embry, the Regional Secretary of the London Fire Brigades Union, added that it was not just the closure of the Kingsland Road station at stake, but nine others are also threatened, along with 588 jobs and 14 engines.
An injunction was also sought from the court, halting any cuts to affected services until the review has been heard.
Shane Stevens, a firefighter at Kingsland Station, said that De Beauvoir residents would suffer if the station was closed because the neighbouring stations had not spent years accumulating the local knowledge his team had.
Stevens said: “There are a lot of housing estates, De Beauvoir is densely populated and it continues to grow. That’s why you’ve got to know the blocks, the buildings. You’ve got to have the local knowledge as seconds save lives.”
