Listening to Radio 5 live, it was reported that 157 people across the UK died in fires in domestic dwellings that had working smoke detectors fitted.

It was also reported fire service arrival times had gone up from five minutes to seven minutes. These are facts the Government has just released. Now bearing this information in mind, how on earth does this warrant replacing the full time fire crew on Canvey with retained crew?

If the retained crew get called out they either come from home or their place of employment. I suggest this is going to take longer than seven minutes to get to the scene of a fire, and heaven forbid the retained crew fail to be able to respond to a fire or other emergency and we are dependent on the nearest standby station at Rayleigh Weir.

I believe we will then be adding a few more numbers to those given out by the Government.

Essex Fire Authority, and Essex Fire and Rescue Service please take note.

Cllr Peter Greig
Canvey Independent Party
Wamburg Road
Canvey