YORK’S heritage champion is calling on City of York Council to block plans to reduce city centre fire cover by refusing to sell land for a new fire station.

Green councillor Dave Taylor said the authority should only sell the former Kent Street coach station site to North Yorkshire Fire & Rescue Service if it agreed to site two fire engines and a turntable ladder there.

He suggested the move after The Press reported yesterday that fire officers want to press ahead with transferring one engine and the ladder from the current central station in Clifford Street to Huntington fire station.

Labour councillor Ken King, vice chairman of the fire authority, said under a “brilliant compromise” proposal, officers were suggesting the engine should become a “floating pump” during the day, situated within the inner ring road and able to get swiftly to any blaze in the city centre.

But Coun Taylor branded this a “pathetic compromise,” saying people living in the city centre in high-rise buildings and historic timber-framed buildings deserved better than a crew making its way down from the Huntington station on the outer ring road. “Similarly, people living in the south and east of the city, including the massive Heslington East development, could be put at risk by the move,” he claimed.

“Having only one part-time engine at a new station on the Kent Street car park and a ‘roving’ fire engine, but only during the daytime hours, is a poor service for York, a massive reduction in fire cover, and a pathetic compromise.”

Labour council leader James Alexander said he could not comment until he had been able to meet firefighters union leaders later this week.

A fire service spokesman said he could not comment until a report went to all authority members later this week, but the service has claimed previously that the engine’s move to Huntington would mean 75,000 people to the north, south and east of the city enjoying a faster response time, although 3,500 in the city centre would suffer a delayed response time.