A war of words has broken out between Donegal county council and fire crews in Ballyshannon and Bundoran over new fire stations.
The crews claim funding has been offered to the council for one new station to service both towns but that has been refuted by the council who say a review is ongoing.
The fire stations in Ballyshannon and Bundoran in South Donegal are currently under independent review to see if there will be one new fire station allocated to both services or two new stations.
Funding is to be sought from the department of the environment based on the findings of the review.
However, in an e-mail to members of the Donegal municipal district of the county council, members of both crews said they would prefer to be left in their current buildings rather than only one receive funding.
The message stated that recent remedial works have been carried out at both fire stations and both crews are currently happy with the current facilities and would prefer to remain working in these stations until funding is made available for two new buildings.
Both brigades cover large fire grounds including rossnowlagh, laghey to pettigo and parts of Leitirm, Sligo and Fermanagh and they believe that by the closing of one fire station these areas will suffer reduced fire cover and long delays in future turnouts, putting lives and property at risk.
They claim that funding has been offered to Donegal county council for one new fire station and that this will lead to the closure of whichever town doesn’t receive the money.
This claim was refuted by Director of Service for Finance, Emergency Services and Information systems Garry Martin at yesterday’s Donegal Municipal District meeting.
Mr. Martin re-iterated that a review for the provision of a new fire station is still being undertaken and no funding has been allocated yet.
He told councillors that there is no risk to either service being closed down or any positions being lost in the Ballyshannon or Bundoran fire services.
Fine Gael councillor Barry O’Neill read the letter into record at the meeting and has proposed that the council meet with members of the fire service to quell any fears.
Speaking to Ocean FM he says there is a fear factor for the station that might miss out on funding.
