FIGURES suggest that response times have not increased as a result of the removal of one of the two fire engines from Tenbury.

Information released by the fire service indicate that fears that the fire service would take longer to get to incidents are groundless.

Harriett Baldwin, MP for West Worcestershire that includes Tenbury, has been working with Herefordshire and Worcestershire Fire and Rescue Service to monitor response times to incidents and ensure that local people were not impacted by the changes to local service cover.

Average response times have remained at about 13 minutes to reach each incident – exactly the same as it was before the second fire appliance was removed.

Between October and December last year, the Tenbury crew attended 17 incidents – six fires, three rescues from cars or water and eight false alarms.

“The Chief Fire Officer has been monitoring the impact of changes to Tenbury fire station with particular regard to response times and he has reported to me on a regular basis,” said Harriett Baldwin.

“I have been keen to monitor the impact of losing the second appliance on the safety of local people and will continue to do so.

“We can all be grateful of the efforts of our local fire and rescue crew in Tenbury who provide an invaluable measure of security to us all.”

At the time that the decision was made to remove one of the two engines there were concerns that it would leave people in the town more vulnerable especially at times of flooding when the fire station in Tenbury can be cut off from the town centre.