Council to look at advocacy opportunities for firefighter shortage in rural NSW

Narrabri Shire Council will look at advocacy opportunities to ensure under-resourced rural fire stations remain a critical service for local communities.

The push from council, agreed upon at the most recent meeting, comes as Fire and Rescue NSW faces resourcing challenges in rural areas outside Narrabri Shire.

Councillors acknowledged there was no confirmed risk to local stations, however, voiced concern that the changes could particularly impact smaller towns in the future and in return pose potentially severe risks to community safety.

“They’re thinking of downgrading some of their trucks at some of the stations,” Cr Brett Dickinson, who chaired the August meeting, said.

“Not yet at any of those in our local government area, but one that’s close to us.

“They’re reducing the size of the tanker so that you don’t need four people, you only need two people. We think that might be a bit of a problem at times.”

Part of council’s push will include investigating opportunities to leverage Fire and Rescue recruitment drives locally. Council will also seek further clarification from Fire and Rescue NSW on how these current changes may affect stations in the Narrabri LGA presently and in the future.

Cr Dickinson moved that council proceed with its advocacy efforts. This was seconded by Cr Navin Erathnage.

At the start of the discussions, general manager Eloise Chaplain told the meeting that mayor Darrell Tiemens, a member of Narrabri Fire and Rescue, would not be involved in council’s advocacy efforts. Cr Tiemens was an apology for the August meeting, which was chaired by the deputy mayor, Cr Dickinson.