Report of good news on Audlem's fire tender

Following representations from Audlem Parish Council, including the article by Councillor Peter Morgan published on Audlem Online, it appears that Cheshire Fire Service has changed its plans to replace the Audlem based fire tender with a small support vehicle equipped with a much shorter ladder than the current vehicle.

While the news is at present unconfirmed officially, the change of heart has been given in response to press queries which were, we understand, linked to the recent seventy minute emergency turn-out of an ambulance to Audlem because of the lack of local ambulance cover. If confirmed, the Cheshire Fire Service response must be commended as they have clearly listened to local opinion and taken note of the serious concerns expressed about the loss of such a vital emergency service.

While the whole community will be pleased, it will be particularly welcome to those in the forty three-storey households in the area who wouldn't have been able to escape if trapped on a top floor and were being rescued by the proposed short-laddered support vehicle.

The fire tender is also a vital part of village life. Would the uniformed young Fire Cadets, who marched so smartly to the Remembrance Service from the fire station to St James' Church this Sunday, have volunteered to be cadets if the only local vehicle was a glorified Transit van or similar?

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