Fire Authority votes against going to public consultation

Published: 11 August 2026

On Thursday 6 August the Kent Fire & Rescue Service announced ‘Kent and Medway Fire and Rescue Authority (KMFRA) has voted against going to public consultation on risk-based proposals to improve emergency fire cover.’

In July Deal Town Council unanimously supported a motion to challenge these proposals which would have stripped the town of its on-call crew and engine.

On behalf of the council, The Mayor of Deal, Cllr Mike Eddy, wrote to KMFRA members and KFRS ahead of the meeting in August.

Cllr Eddy said: “These ‘risk-based proposals’ were contradictory and challenged within the body of the report itself. I find it staggering that the removal of vital services can claim to help ‘improve emergency fire cover.’

“We’ve been a two-pump town since World War Two and the 'comprehensive data and evidence' upon which the proposals were based scarcely tallies with our reality.

“Weakened and worsening infrastructure, endless roadworks, delays, new builds, wildfires in the summer and flooding in the winter. These proposals simply didn’t stack up and put our town in severe danger.

“KFRS will continue to explore its ‘financial envelope’ and we will continue to urge them not to look at hand-picked statistics in isolation, on a desktop, balancing the books, but in lives lived and saved day-to-day in the real world.

“We will continue in our support of retaining current staff levels at Deal Fire Station, to maintain two pumps and our thanks again go to the crews that serve and support our town.”