Cllr Geoff Heathcock

Geoff in his role as Senior Opposition Member on the Cambridgeshire & Peterborough Fire Authority has spoken out against another year of pay restraint for Members of the Fire & Rescue Service as confirmed in the recent Autumn Financial Statement by the Chancellor as extremely unhelpful and likely to lead too serious hardening of attitudes within the staff – now faced with a 1% rise in pay – when inflation is over 5% and taking staff into a third year of restraint!

Its desparately unfair to folk who give their all – ultimately from time to time expected to make the supreme sacrifice, they did not cause the National Financial mess that the Country is in and yet are being pinned down. More and More is expected of them every year and this is how they get rewarded. At the same time – the Fire Authority leadership insists on keeping the Fire Service component of local Council Tax artificially low – this helps no one and will sooner rather than later bring more problems for years to come. The Public rely and respect their Emergency Services and want them to be properly funded. I will continue to argue that case as we enter the 2012/3 financial period.