{"id":221605,"date":"2025-06-28T15:09:18","date_gmt":"2025-06-28T15:09:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/221605\/"},"modified":"2025-06-28T15:09:18","modified_gmt":"2025-06-28T15:09:18","slug":"emotional-scenes-as-firefighters-wave-goodbye-to-old-fire-station","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/221605\/","title":{"rendered":"Emotional scenes as firefighters wave goodbye to old fire station"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Fire service bosses say they are &#8216;absolutely confident&#8217; their response won&#8217;t be affected with crews being relocated for just over a year<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/511711202_1152273286915179_50414.jpg\" loading=\"eager\"  \/>The final parade at the old Stockport Community Fire Station on Tuesday<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">Serving and retired firefighters came together for a final parade at Stockport&#8217;s old central fire station. Crews have now moved out of <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk\/all-about\/stockport\" target=\"\" aria-label=\"\" tabindex=\"0\" rel=\"noopener\">Stockport<\/a> Community Fire Station ahead of work beginning on its &#8216;state-of-the-art&#8217; replacement.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">The building on King Street West &#8211; between the town centre and Edgeley -is being demolished and rebuilt as part of a \u00a36m project.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">Fire service <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk\/news\/greater-manchester-news\/greater-manchester-fire-stations-under-25415665\" target=\"_self\" aria-label=\"\" tabindex=\"0\" rel=\"noopener\">bosses initially wanted to close the station<\/a>, along with Whitehill station <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk\/all-about\/reddish\" target=\"_self\" aria-label=\"\" tabindex=\"0\" rel=\"noopener\">in Reddish<\/a>, and merge them into one new station.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">But the large amount of redevelopment in the borough, particularly in and around the town centre, meant fire service chiefs were unable to find an affordable and suitable new site for the proposed new station.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/0_ssr_chs_300523firestation.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\"  \/>A CGI image showing how the new building will look<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">In November 2022 it was <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk\/news\/greater-manchester-news\/greater-manchester-fire-stations-under-25415665\" target=\"_self\" aria-label=\"\" tabindex=\"0\" rel=\"noopener\">announced they would be retaining both<\/a> and spending \u00a36m on each, rebuilding them.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">The Stockport station is being done first. Crews working there have been relocated to Whitehill.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">The Manchester branch of the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) posted on Facebook on Tuesday saying: &#8220;Today Stockport fire station closed its doors for the last time.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \"><a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"http:\/\/\" target=\"\" aria-label=\"\" tabindex=\"0\"\/>&#8220;Crews will be working from Whitehill station whilst the old station at Stockport is demolished and the new one is built. Firefighters and retired Firefighters came together this morning for the last ever parade.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/1_Stockport-Fire-stations.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\"  \/>The building on King Street West is being demolished(Image: Kenny Brown | Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">The new building is expected to be ready for firefighters to move into next September.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service (GMFRS) insists there will be no reduction in the number of fire engines or firefighters during the rebuild, and say they are &#8216;absolutely confident that we will continue to provide our excellent emergency response&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">&#8220;Firefighters will continue their usual duties in and around Stockport\u2019s station area, including prevention activities, school visits and training,&#8221; they added.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">Sarah Nattrass, Aassistant chief fire officer, said: \u201cGreater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service apologises for any delay residents have felt in us providing an update to our plans for Stockport fire station.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/0_ssr_chs_300523firestation_02.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\"  \/>GMFRS say the new station will provide &#8216;state-of-the-art&#8217; facilities<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">&#8220;We understand that any visible change in our arrangements can bring uncertainties and worries.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">\u201cThe state-of-the-art fire station is set to be delivered in Autumn next year and will provide the community with a modern, flexible, resilient fire and rescue service.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">\u201cA public consultation was first undertaken in Spring 2023 to make sure the plans developed were in tune with the needs of the local community. Further details and updates have been available on our website throughout the process.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">\u201cI also want to reassure residents that there will be no reduction in the amount of fire engines or firefighters in the area during the rebuild process, with crews moving to nearby Whitehill station.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/0_Stockport-Fire-stations.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\"  \/>Crews are being relocated to Whitehill station in Reddish during the build(Image: Kenny Brown | Manchester Evening News)<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">&#8220;This decision has been taken after extensive data analysis and we are absolutely confident that we will continue to provide our excellent emergency response both within the immediate area around Stockport King Street West Fire Station and across the wider borough of Stockport.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \">\u201cI am committed to providing our local community opportunities to hear directly from us as the construction of the new community fire station, which will bring lasting benefits to the borough, progresses.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fire service bosses say they are &#8216;absolutely confident&#8217; their response won&#8217;t be affected with crews being relocated for&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":221606,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8813],"tags":[748,48319,393,4884,11566,2465,1288,2627,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-221605","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manchester","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-edgeley","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-greater-manchester-fire-service","13":"tag-manchester","14":"tag-stockport","15":"tag-stockport-town-centre","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221605"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221605\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/221606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}