Sandyford Firestation operational by July 2010

The Fire and Rescue Authority have agreed that Fire Support is the company they would like to appoint to take forward the £46million private finance initiative project. The project will see seven fire stations rebuilt as well as the building of an additional three stations in areas where the Fire Authority has determined there is a need for additional resources.

All stations have been designed with a community facility and state of the art operational facilities. Stations crewed around the clock are also to include fitness facilities that can be used by supervised groups. Community groups will be able to use the facilities and the newly designed stations will also allow for more community safety activities to take place, such as Student Firefighter courses.

Chief Fire Officer/Chief Executive Peter Dartford says, “We are leading the way in the UK Fire and Rescue Service with these purpose built community embracing fire stations. Our current fire stations were built at a time when we were almost solely a reactive service just responding to emergencies, they were certainly not built for the pro-active service we are today or the Service we are going to be in the future – sitting at the heart of the community.

“This is a really exciting time for the Service and we look forward to engaging with the public so that they can help us shape the use of the community facilities. These buildings don’t look like our traditional fire stations and this is because they have been specifically designed to be inviting to the public and they allow for the integration of the community within the fire station.”

Work should commence in July 2009.