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Edinburgh Today Fire Stations |
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Proposals October 2005 |
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Marionville Drive The fire station is at the roundabout where Marionville Drive (left) and Restalrig Avenue (right) meet. When this photograph was taken, on 31 October 2005, the fire station was threatened with closure. Lothian & Borders Fire Service have proposed to close the Marionville Drive Fire Station and withdraw two fire engines from service.
Edinburgh Evening News: 27 October 2005, p.25 AND 1 November 2005, p.12 |
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Macdonald Road The Fire Service also plans to move the McDonald Road Fire Station to a new site, yet to be found, in or near Leith Docks. These closures are part of a wider plan to close four fire stations in the Lothians, two of which would be replaced by a "super-station" and to cut about 1 in 7 jobs. That's about 100 jobs. A consultation period over these proposals ends on 31 October 2005, the day that the photograph of Marionville Drive Fire Station above was taken. By 27 October, about 20,000 objections to the proposals had been lodged.
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Update November 2005 |
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Decision still Pending Lothian & Borders' Fire Brigade's had planned to replace Marionville Drive and McDonald Road fire stations by a new fire station at Leith and to close Musselburgh and Tranent fire stations in East Lothian. However, Edinburgh councillors are agreed at their meeting on22 November not to approve the proposals to replace Marionville and McDonald Road stations without knowing exactly where in Leith the new "superstation" would be built.
Edinburgh Evening News: 18 November 2005, pp.1-2. |
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Update January 2006 |
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Decision still Pending Lothian & Borders' Fire Brigade's announced in January 2006 that, "following opposition from councillors, firefighters and campaigners, they had axed plans to create a new superstation in Leith" However, they still plan to close the Marionville Drive fire station and now plan to replace the MacDonald Road fire station and intend to replace them by two new stations, one in Leith, possibly in Salamander Street, and the other close to the present MacDonald Road station. In East Lothian, they intend to replace the fire stations at Musselburgh and Tranent by a new station at Wallyford. Campaigners remain unhappy with these revised plans and intend to protest outside the Edinburgh City Chambers on 27 January 2006. Edinburgh Evening News: January 20, 2006: p.25 |
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Update March 2007 |
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McDonald Road Lothian & Borders' Fire Brigade have announced that they are now close to agreeing the location of the new fire station for North Edinburgh. The final decision is likely to be made in about three or four months' time. Twenty-five sites have been considered, and these have now been narrowed down to two: - the site of the current fire station in McDonald Road. - the site next door, formerly Scottish Power offices. Newbridge The new station will not need to be so large as the existing McDonald Road station because training facilities are being moved to a new training centre being built at Newbridge. It is planned that the training facilities at Newbridge will include a stretch of road where car crashes can be simulated and the recreation of a collapsed building to be used in search-and-rescue training. The mock ship, now used for training at McDonald Road, will also be transferred to Newbridge. Wallyford The fire service also announced that they plan to build a new fire station at Wallyford, East Lothian to provide faster attendance to fires in Prestonpans and East Musselburgh. Edinburgh Evening News: January 23, 2007: p.19 (Newbridge) Edinburgh Evening News: March 26, 2007: p.20 (McDonald Road, Wallyford) |