Disappointment as funding pulled for new fire station

By TONY GALVIN NO funding is being made available for the building of Tuam's new fire station, local representative were told this week. Despite the fact that a site for the planned facility has been purchased on the Milltown Road, it will remain vacant for many years to come. The news came as a bombshell to Tuam politicians who were informed of the setback at Monday's meeting of Galway Co Council. Tuam Town Council has yet to be officially informed. [private] Director of Service Eugene Cummins told the meeting that the council had to work within the constraints being imposed on all sectors and the focus had to be on keeping fire service equipment maintained and up-to-date and there was no scope for capital projects. He assured members that the council would continue to keep the proposed new Tuam fire station on the agenda but warned members that under the current economic circumstance, he was not optimistic of an early turnaround. The Director did say that the county's fire service was now fully staffed and he hoped this position could be maintained into the future. He stated that the building of a new fire station on the east side of Galway city could have an impact on the level of service maintained in some of the stations located around the county. Nine of the ten fire stations are east of Galway city. There is considerable unease in Connemara that this huge area has only one station, located in Clifden, and has to rely on city-based services which can take an hour to arrive at the scene of an emergency. The focus on the new city fire station is giving rise to concern that cutbacks may be introduced in smaller stations such as Athenry and Loughrea. The city station has ten full-time fire crew while the nine county stations are manned by part-time crew, known as retained service. Callout costs The issue of the cost of callouts was also raised. Cllr Mary Hoade said that in one case in Headford when a Christmas candle caused a small fire, even though the situation was dealt with and the emergency call cancelled, there was still a significant bill to be paid. It was explained that once an emergency call was made the system was activated and  it had to be paid for. Cllr Joe Lee said that it was often not worth calling on the fire brigade as it could take an hour to get there and if you hadn't put out the fire yourself by that time, there wouldn't be much left to save. Then on top of that you get landed with a big bill. Commenting on the failure to secure funding for Tuam's new fire station, Cllr Shaun Cunniffe said: 'It was very disappointing to hear the announcement from Galway Co Council that funding for the construction of the new fire station in Tuam has not received sanction at this time. Speaking to the Director of Services, Eugene Cummins, he explained to me that they submitted the application to the Department of the Environment but did not received the go ahead. 'Eugene Cummins assured me that Galway County Council will continue to press the case and re-submit applications for the necessary funding at regular intervals for the fire station and that is all he can practically do.' [/private]