Welephant joins local firefighters in Brighton to say ‘save our fire service’.
Brighton played host to a special guest on Saturday when Welephant joined local firefighters to raise awareness about cuts to the fire service across East Susssex.
Welephant, who has his own Twitter account (@999Welephant) entertained the crowds with music and dancing whilst they signed a petition calling for proper funding for the fire service that puts public safety first.
Simon Herbert, local firefighter and Chair of East Sussex FBU, said: “The Fire Service is under attack from central Government. They have slashed the Fire and Rescue Services budget by 20%. Cuts of this scale cannot be made without putting lives at great risk.”
“We firefighters will always do our best and give our all to protect and save the public when they need us. But the harsh reality is that the fire service is now being cut to such an extent that, despite our best efforts, we may not be able to.”
Simon Herbert was joined by Nancy Platts, Labour’s parliamentary candidate for Brighton Kemptown and Peacehaven.
Nancy said: “We, the taxpayers, fund our public services; this is our money, this is our fire service. We should have a say and local people have overwhelmingly told me that they want to keep all five fire engines and all our firefighters in Brighton and Hove. We need to put the safety of our people and our firefighters first.”
At a meeting in June 2014, Tory, Lib Dem and UKIP Councillors on the Fire Authority voted for one of only five fire engines and 24 firefighters to be cut from the City of Brighton and Hove.
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