CHANGES proposed to how Surrey fire stations are crewed at night could see Haslemere night time cover reduced from ‘on call’ to ‘on call, delayed response’ - meaning firefighters will potentially be travelling from a greater distance to emergency callouts.

Changes to Surrey Fire and Rescue’s (SFRS) response model - out to public consultation until May 26 - will save £3 million a year and will result in some reductions in service.

Surrey County Council is proposing to take away night time cover from three stations - Banstead, Egham and Painshill - and reduce the number of fire engines from two to one at Fordbridge (yet to open), Guildford and Woking.

Both Haslemere and Walton fire stations are set to have their night time cover reduced.

According to the Equality Impact Assessment (EIA) report based on the plan, changes could impact response times, increasing average response times by 12 seconds in some areas of the county, but decreasing it in others.

Average response times for night time cover is set to increase by 38 seconds.

According to the EIA report, SFRS currently operates from 25 fire stations with 32 fire engines and 29 specialist vehicles.

There are 466 wholetime firefighters, 117 on-call firefighters, 24 Joint Emergency Communication Centre staff, 59 support staff and 60 volunteers.

Surrey County Council launched the Making Surrey Safer community plan consultation on Monday, saying it will help firefighters work more closely with communities to prevent emergencies happening in the first place.

Firefighters will go into schools, colleges, workplaces, homes and support groups to help people with “lifelong” safety, protecting them not just against house fires but also other kinds of emergencies, such as road accidents and wildfire.

Surrey Fire and Rescue Service is also looking at how it responds to incidents to make sure firefighters get to where they are needed as quickly as possible, such as by reducing the time it takes between a call coming in and firefighters leaving the station.

Proposals in the three-year Making Surrey Safer Plan include:

? Keeping the same network of fire stations and fire engines but crewing some differently at night to free up time for prevention work, while still maintaining cover to keep Surrey safe.

? Expanding the catchment area for recruiting on-call firefighters in Dunsfold and Gomshall to attract more people to the service.

? Charging for attending incidents that are not emergencies such as persistent false alarms, in line with many other fire services, following powers granted by government.

Steve Owen-Hughes, SFRS acting chief fire officer said: “Our plan is all about bringing firefighters closer to the communities we serve to help prevent emergencies and keep people safe, especially the most vulnerable in our society.

“By keeping the same number of fire stations and fire engines as we have now but crewing some of them differently at night, when there is less call on us, we’ll be able to do more life-saving prevention work and staff training, to make sure our crews are ready to help when needed.

“This will help us make the best use of our resources – we’d still have the fire cover we need to keep Surrey safe during the day and night but we’d be able to step up our community safety work to prevent emergencies in the first place.

“And when we do need to respond, we want to do so as quickly as possible, so we’re taking steps such as reducing the time it takes between a call coming in and our firefighters leaving the station.

“We really want to hear your views on our proposals and would encourage you to take part in our consultation.”

* To view what’s proposed and respond to the Making Surrey Safer plan, visit surreycc.gov.uk.