Row over £283,000 fire website upgrade as Islington engine due to be axed

London Assembly Member Andrew Dismore has suggested an alternative budget that would save the fire engines but scrap an IT upgrade of the brigade's website (Image: Archant)

A row has broken out at City Hall about plans to pay £283,000 to upgrade the London Fire Brigade’s website when 13 fire engines are under threat of being axed to save money.

The brigade wants to scrap one of Islington’s fire engines, in Holloway, leaving the borough with only two engines.

The suggested cut comes under proposals to slash £11million from next year’s fire brigade budget by cutting 13 engines across the capital.

Labour members of the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority (LFEPA) say proposals for alternate fire crewing and slashing a website upgrade should be considered instead of losing pumps.

London Assembly Member Andrew Dismore, Labour chair of the LFEPA resources committee, said: “While a new website would be welcome, this should not be done at the cost of front line cuts.”

But Cllr Maurice Heaster, Conservative committee member, said at a meeting on November 12: “You’ve suggested taking out a very important bit of IT.

“All the conversation now is very much about social media and this authority doesn’t really get involved with social media because, frankly, the equipment we’ve got isn’t up to it.

“I think it’s a false economy to think about removing something as important as this.”

London Fire Commissioner Ron Dobson has given his backing to the plan to axe 13 engines.

They were taken out of service in August 2013 for use during strike action and the brigade says fire response targets “can continue to be comfortably met at the London level” without them.

But the time it takes firefighters to reach a blaze in Islington will rise and the Fire Brigades Union says “lives may be put at risk”.

London Assembly Member Dr Fiona Twycross, Labour committee member, said: “There are other ways to make cuts other than deciding to cut 13 appliances. I think the public would want us to consider this very carefully.”

A decision has been deferred until December 2.

A spokeswoman for the London Fire Brigade said: “It’s unfair to suggest that we are making a decision between keeping a fire engine or updating our website.

“Firstly, updating the website would be a one off payment unlike the year-on-year savings of £13.2 million needed to meet our budget for 2016/17.

“A modern website would form an integral part of our work on fire prevention, education and fire safety regulation for London’s businesses.

“A redevelopment of the site and its functions would allow the brigade to do more, better, for less.

“Currently the brigade website is not mobile-ready when 76 per cent of the UK population use smart phones to access their information.”