Nov 26 - Government Says It Is Working With City Fire Brigade To “Provide The Service Community Deserves”
The Governement says that the GSD's “new found interest” in the City Fire Brigade (CFB) is a “curious change” from their approach when in Government, given the huge problems the Brigade suffered at that time, as best evidenced, it says, by the demonstrations firemen carried out to the doors of No6 Convent Place on more than one occasion.
In fact, says the Government, the GSLP/Liberal government has been working very closely with Unite and with their representatives within the City Fire Brigade to deliver not just a review of fire services in Gibraltar, but also consideration of all the claims made by firemen in respect of their conditions of service.
The Government says that the review document prepared by Sir Ken Knight has been made available to Unite and its representatives in the Brigade, who are engaged with Government in negotiations on certain aspects of the report.
The Government repeats that it will make the whole review document public when negotiations are finalised, together with its agreement with Unite on implementation of the review. In some respects the Government and Unite may go further than is suggested by the review in certain areas.
What is farcical, according to the Government, is the suggestion by the GSD that the failure to publish the review document already in some way suggests that the recommendations are not what the Government expected and that for that reason the report is not being published. That may, however, argues the Government, be exactly the reason why the GSD failed to publish the King report into GBC, the report into Customs and many other reports it acquired when it was in Government, i.e. because the reports did not assist the GSD.
Minister with responsibility for the City Fire Brigade, Steven Linares, said: "I am working closely with Unite and with members of the City Fire Brigade to deliver the revamped service our community deserves and which our professionals in the CFB can deliver with our support. That will include but not be limited to a new fire station. The CFB is an excellent cadre of professional men who we look to in emergencies and to whom we must have regard when building the future of the service they provide. Their representatives from Unite are working with us to deliver for our community the fire service of the future in the best interests of all of Gibraltar and the men of the CFB. That is what we are going to achieve together and which the GSD did not manage in its failure to properly engage with the Brigade in its time in Government."
