ANY concerns over the future of St Davids Fire Station were allayed at a meeting of the city council on Monday, June 2.

City councillors were joined by County Councillor Wynne Evans, the chairman of the Mid and West Wales Fire Authority Resources Committee.

He said: “You have my word. While I am sitting on the authority St Davids Fire Station will remain open. You don’t have to be busy to stay open.”

Cllr Evans was also asked to talk about the provision of the first responder unit in the St Davids area.

Controversial plans to move the control room of Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service from Carmarthen to Bridgend were also on the agenda after the city council raised concerns that it would result in local knowledge being lost.

Cllr Chris Taylor said: “What is the cost when things go wrong? The west of Wales is always getting neglected, with things dragged in the opposite direction.”

In a letter to the clerk, the assistant chief fire officer Derek Masson attempted to provide some reassurance.

He said: “Local knowledge in a modern control centre is not required. At present we do not have any local knowledge in our existing control centre covering St Davids or in fact Pembrokeshire.

“Due to the levels of technology we are able to pin point a caller via the phone networks, hence our call centre just needs to keep the caller on the line for a few seconds.”

Mr Masson added: “The area where local knowledge is essential is at our local community fire stations, which will not only know the local names, remote rural areas and the quickest ways to get there.

“Your Station in St Davids is an exemplar of a community station. This project only plans to move our current control staff from the outskirts of Carmarthen to Bridgend and therefore will have no adverse impact on the current services being provided.”