We sent the following email to SDO Ratcliffe:
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Dear Bob
I was very disappointed to be advised yesterday at drill that HFRS will be restricting the number of cars that we can use for training. The advice that Retained Watches can only have three cars per year (admittedly additional vehicles will be considered on their individual merit).
Firstly, I am extremly concerned that finance should be the governing factor in your decision. Training is perhaps the most important expenditure that HFRS can make and any limitation of this resource must be seriously questioned. In the light of the current expenditure being experienced for rank to role it does then seem to be hypocritical to limit funds for training.
Last year Bishops Waltham used at least five cars during training . We as you know are a one pump station. Multi pump stations identify that because of the extra crew members, they cannot all join in efficiently on one RTC training drill so need additional cars to that.
In addition I was surprised to see that Whole time stations are allowed more cars than their RDS colleagues and wonder why this discrepancy occurs.
In light of recent reports which highlight that the number of RTC's are increasing it seems most surprising that HFRS is artificialy limiting practice, training and valueable experience that its Firegfighters can gain in training for financial reasons.
I look forward to your response.
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We will let you know when we get a reply.
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