Dundee City and Monifieth (Balmossie, Kingsway East)

The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) is carrying out a Service Delivery Review to look at ways of reshaping and modernising the organisation. The primary aim is to ensure that resources – staff, stations and appliances – are matched to operational risk and demand across Scotland.

During summer 2025, SFRS consulted on a series of changes involving more than 30 fire stations across Scotland. In Dundee City and Monifieth, this included two options for change involving two fire stations in Balmossie and Kingsway East.

In June 2025, a suite of recommendations was presented to the SFRS Board for decision, informed by feedback from communities, staff and stakeholders alongside operational, financial and equality evidence.

The following change was approved for implementation in Dundee city and Monifieth:

• Proceed to remove the wholetime appliance from Balmossie and maintain one on call appliance at the station; AND 
• Reinstate the second wholetime appliance at Kingsway East that was temporarily removed in September 2023. 

The proposed changes were put forward as part of a 12-week public consultation between June and September 2025. Engagement activity included public meetings and drop-in sessions across affected communities, attended by more than 800 people across Scotland, alongside a public survey which generated more than 3,600 responses.

In Dundee City and Monifieth, this included:

• Two public meetings were held in Broughty Ferry Parish Church on Tuesday 12 August 2025. In total there were 128 attendees (58 and 70).

The second wholetime appliance at nearby Kingsway East in Dundee was temporarily withdrawn in September 2023. A permanent equivalent solution is now required.

Balmossie was not in scope at the time of this temporary withdrawal. Our data shows that Balmossie is a more suitable alternative option for permanent withdrawal or closure, and the second wholetime appliance reinstated at Kingsway East would adequately serve the area.

Balmossie is poorly located on the road network which limits the operational areas which it typically covers. Operational demand at Balmossie is the fourth lowest of all stations in Scotland with the same level of resources.

Pros

• Appropriate resource level to match local demand across east of Dundee city.
• Makes permanent an equivalent to the essential saving achieved in 2023 by temporarily withdrawing a wholetime appliance from Kingsway East.
• Transfer or relocate around five staff to other key roles across training, prevention and operational resilience.
• Reinstatement of a second appliance at Kingsway East, which was temporarily withdrawn in September 2023.

Cons

• Increase in first appliance response times within local area.
• Fire station is still poorly located on the road network and on call demand will remain low.