A multi-million pound deal is to be completed for the land that will house a brand new “flagship” North Liverpool fire station.
Members of Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority (MFRA) are to sign off on the purchase of land at Long Lane, Aintree, as the service looks to build a new multi pump super station combining existing sites in Croxteth and Aintree. A budget of almost £40m is being set aside by the authority for the entirety of the project and members are expected to greenlight the purchase of land when they meet at the headquarters in Bootle on June 9.
Liverpool Council gave the go-ahead for proposal for a new fire station to be built on land formerly occupied by Commercial Hydraulics on Long Lane earlier this month. The new station is expected to boost response times in both areas in the process.
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The two-storey building will be constructed consisting of four appliance bays, incorporating operational and welfare accommodation, offices and training facilities, external drill and training spaces, as well as a four storey training tower. A training and development academy (TDA) including classrooms, offices, dining space, indoor training facilities and a community meeting room would also be built alongside a mock motorway and railway for training drills.
A canine training base will be incorporated as part of the proposals. During the Liverpool Council planning committee meeting, chief fire officer Phil Garrigan said the current Aintree site was only served by a crew during the day while response times to the area by 49 seconds. Responses to Croxteth will also improve by 20 seconds.
He said overall response times across North Liverpool will improve on average by 34 seconds. The chief fire officer added that MFRS wants to address all foreseeable risks for Merseyside and have a facility that ensures they are able to do so.
The report to fire authority members detailed that Wates is to be appointed contractor for the scheme with £40m being made available for the land purchase and construction of the new site. It was said that costs have risen as “Brexit, the pandemic, the energy crisis and the war in Ukraine are having a compounding effect on the market.”
Around £11.6m of the budget will be made up through borrowing. The report added: “The financial risk for the authority is that the key assumptions in the current medium term financial plan (MTFP) (pay and Government funding) do not hold out over the MTFP and at a future point the authority will need to consider new savings to balance the budget.”
The currently vacant site’s primary function is to be a centre of excellence for the training of firefighters, with more than 60 firefighters based in Fazakerley all working to a 24-hour shift pattern with 15 on duty during each shift. Around 50 administrative/training staff would also work on site during normal office hours. An additional 20 firefighter posts would be created at the new station as well as one new support staff role, two part time Prince’s Trust course leaders, one commercial member of staff, one full-time Facilities Management team member and one additional assurance team member for National Resilience.
