£200,000 boost for planned fire station

11:50am Monday 24th November 2008

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A PROPOSAL to build a new community fire station in Weymouth has received a £200,000 boost from Dorset County Council.

Cabinet members have voted in favour of using their powers to make a financial contribution to the £8 million scheme.

County councillor Mike Byatt, representative for Westham, said the use of a Well Being Power scheme would knock £200,000 from the £1 million asking price of the land at the former Westhaven Junior School site.

He said the decision had been further ratified at a council meeting.

Dorset Fire Authority is currently undertaking a 12-week public consultation into plans to build a state-of-the-art community fire station in Westham, which will run until December 23.

Chief Fire Officer Darran Gunter said he was delighted that the council had agreed to use its powers to support the sale of the former school site to Dorset Fire and Rescue Service.

He said: “Dorset County Council is a key partner of ours and shares our vision of providing a fantastic operational fire station, together with community safety facilities and more general facilities for the communities of Westham and Weymouth.

“Our proposals for a community fire station are currently the subject of consultation. Nevertheless, the decision by the council is an important step in realising our vision of safer communities in Weymouth and West Dorset generally.”

Coun Byatt said the Well Being Power is part of legislation to enable and encourage local authorities to contribute towards community development.

He said: “In effect, it means that instead of receiving the full market value, the council would receive an £800,000 figure from the fire authority.

“The county council has acknowledged the importance of the proposal from the fire authority and the community development aspect.

“Key to the excitement of this opportunity is that the community fire station will have, within its building, facilities for people to use for meetings and for regular groups to get together.

“It will also provide an interface between local people and the fire authority.”

Coun Byatt said the community facilities would include ‘rooms, IT suites, cups of coffee and a place for larger public meetings’.

He said he and the people of Westham had campaigned for several years for a community centre and ‘this is the only way we can build something worthy for local people, there isn’t the capital around for any other route’.

He added: “There are currently ongoing discussions about what the final scheme will look like.

“I would anticipate that by the early part of next year all the discussions, consultations and fine tuning will have been completed and we’ll be in a position to make a final decision, committing to building within a time frame.

“I’m anticipating and hopeful that by 2011 we will have a new community fire station delivering services for local people.”