08:07 Tuesday 12th April 2011
Peterborough Breakfast Show
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire
PAUL STAINTON: Now the MP for Peterborough says he doesn’t believe the amount of money being spent on salaries by Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service is sustainable. Stewart Jackson is joining two other Cambridgeshire MPs in calling for a review of how the county’s fire service spends its money. He’ll be meeting the Chief Fire Officer Graham Stagg to discuss the matter later today, with a couple of other MPs. He explained earlier his concerns. (TAPE)
STEWART JACKSON: When we’re all being told that we’ve got to tighten our belts and reduce public expenditure across a lot of areas, to learn, for instance, that this fire service, which serves 750,000 people, has four members of staff on £600,000 between them, has six people in their media and communications department, including a full-time web co-ordinator, a design and communications officer, a full-time PR officer, and a media and communications assistant, that they are spending £128,000 on car allowances for the coming year, for instance, and that they’re spending for instance £300,000 this year on new laptops and desktop computers, these are figures which would cause eyebrows to be raised in a very good benign year, but given the circumstances we’re in financially, I just don’t think they’re sustainable. (LIVE)
PAUL STAINTON: Well that’s MP for Peterborough Stewart Jackson. I’m pleased to say we can speak to the county’s Chief Fire Officer Graham Stagg now. Morning Graham.
GRAHAM STAGG: Good morning.
PAUL STAINTON: It feels like and seems like, from what Stewart was saying, that there’s an air of profligacy at the top of the fire service in Cambridgeshire. Continue reading “Stagg at Bay – MPs Want Answers”