Members of the public will have to wait an hour to be rescued safely instead of 8 minutes in the River Avon area because Chief Fire Officer Ben Ansell has decided to remove vital equipment from Chippenham and Trowbridge stations. This will put the lives at risk of people caught in flooding in an area Mr Ansell knows to be of high risk.

Removing equipment and training from the firefighters means that they will respond but be unable to rescue people quickly and with the right tools. Rather than watch people die, they will be forced to carry out dangerous rescues without the vital safety equipment they need.

Mr Ansell wants to remove ALL specialist  technical rescue equipment and training from Wiltshire Firefighters and move it to Dorset, and Stratton in Swindon. There is no flood risk in Swindon like there is in the Chippenham, Bradford-on-Avon and Trowbridge areas. Mr Ansell will put residents of Wiltshire at risk and put firefighters in danger.

Wiltshire people deserve to have a well resourced fire service who can come to our aide when we need it, not wait for an hour to be rescued. Ask Mr Ansell to change his mind and protect Wiltshire residents as we are now and not put our firefighters in danger.