Reprieve for four fire stations

Four fire stations threatened with closure in East Yorkshire and North East Lincolnshire have been given a reprieve by officials.

Humberside Fire and Rescue Authority rejected the chief fire officer's plans to close and downgrade six stations.

The only closure approved was the station in Sledmere, near Driffield.

Hull's central station will remain open with one fire engine until a new one is built. The chief fire officer will now rethink the closure plans.

A spokesman for the fire service said the changes were aimed at modernising resources and would not affect attendance times.

The Goole station was changed to a retained station while Waltham, Kirton Lindsey and Immingham West will remain open.

The plans, announced in December, had been opposed by the Fire Brigades' Union and a petition signed by 17,000 people had been handed in.

North East Lincolnshire councillor Phillip Jackson, who has been campaigning to save the Waltham station, said: "I still think we will have to be very careful in the future that there aren't plans two or three years down the line to close the fire stations, so we will have to be vigilant."

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Humberside Fire and Rescue
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