A MEETING on the future of the Royal Berkshire Fire Service is taking place this evening. 

As reported last week, the service must make millions of pounds of savings. 

The meeting has heard feedback to the consulation on the changes. 

A number of members of the public wrote in to the consultation in an attempt to secure the future of Wargrave fire station.

The decision on the closure of the station has been deferred for one year, as proposed by Cllr Emma Webster.

Two things need to happen to allow this- 1) savings need to be found elsewhere 2) Incidents need to increase to 60 per cent.

Cllr Emma Webster, of West Berks council, said: “Crews&community of Wargrave, we listened to comments you made. Like all respondents, you were passionate in the defence of the station.

"I promise we'll try to find the savings to keep the fire station open, however I need something in return to make this possible.

"The crewing availability for fire and rescue incidents needs to increase. In the next 12 months we need this to increase to 60%.

"We can work together to help get the new recruits and those currently completing their NVQs to competent quicker."

The meeting heard that the majority of respondents said their preferred consultation option was option one (43%).

The online questionnaire was the primary method of gaining feedback from stakeholders. It received a total of 1003 entries and along with other collection methods such as post, email and telephone gave an overall total of 1050 responses which shows an increased response rate of 222% from the previous highest, received during the Response Standards consultation in 2016.

We will bring you more as we have it.