The decision to close ten London stations has angered many people.
Knightsbridge Fire Station is one of ten London fire stations set to close in January 2014, it was announced last week.
After months of argument, the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority (LFEPA) voted in favour of the plans on Thursday, following advice that they did not have the legal authority to challenge London Mayor Boris Johnson.
Despite this, the vote was tied, and the Conservative Chairman of LFEPA and London Assembly Member, James Cleverly, used his casting vote to approve the plans.
The Fifth London Safety Plan, the driving force behind the cuts, indicates that these changes will not have a detrimental effect on the operation of the London Fire Brigade.
It is argued that the reduction of the frontline mirrors the decrease in demand on the fire service, as the number of fires in London has halved since 2001.
Kensington follows this general London trend, with the number of fire service callouts falling by 34% in the last decade.
Other cities in the UK have already reduced their fire services, with Greater Manchester making a cutback of 30% earlier this year, considerably more than the 10% decrease proposed for London.
The London Fire Brigade (LFB) said that as well as responding to conventional daily callouts, the fire service will also still be able to respond to large-scale incidents after the cutbacks.
They said that even for the 7/7 bombings, the most widespread incident of recent years, only a quarter of the service’s 169 fire engines were utilised.
The key issue in the debate is the increase in response times, which opponents argue will put the lives of Londoners at risk.
“The important thing to emphasise is that the target response time will not change,” said an LFB spokesman. Even after the closures have been implemented, the target response time will remain at the current six minutes, one of the best response times in the UK.
It is, however, inevitable that response times for residents in the near vicinity of closing fire stations will increase.
Paul Embery, London Secretary of the Fire Brigades Union (FBU), said: “There is widespread hostility to these cuts which would lead to an increase in response times for four million Londoners.
“In a service where seconds really do count, this would inevitably cost lives.”
Amidst a barrage of criticism over his pre-election promise to not cut funds to the fire service, Boris Johnson insists that he will keep Londoners safe.
“Ensuring that London’s Fire Service is financially stable and keeping Londoners safe are my top priorities,” he said.
The plans continue to be contested by the FBU and by members of the public. As the FBU Regional Chair for London, Gordon Fielden, tweeted to Mr Cleverly on Thursday: “You are very wrong to think it all ends today, watch this space.”
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