Lanarkshire (Cumbernauld, Hamilton, Bellshill, Lesmahagow)

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 Lanarkshire, this included two options for change involving four fire stations in Cumbernauld, Hamilton, Lesmahagow and Bellshill.

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 Lanarkshire:

• Proceed to introduce Day Shift Duty System (DSDS) crewing for the second appliance at Cumbernauld, which is currently crewed by wholetime firefighters. This would see that appliance crewed by wholetime firefighters during the day from Monday to Friday and crewed by on call firefighters out with these times. The first wholetime appliance would be unchanged; AND
   
• Reduce the number of wholetime appliances based at Hamilton from two to one. The second appliance was temporarily withdrawn in September 2023. 

*SFRS is committed to explore a range of DSDS and on call support options in response to consultation feedback

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 Lanarkshire, this included:

• One public meeting held in Hamilton on 5 August 2025. In total there were 17 attendees.
• One public meeting held in Cumbernauld on 6 August 2025. In total there were 43 attendees.
• One drop-in session held in Lesmahagow on 7 August 2025 with 18 attendees.
• One drop-in session held in Bellshill on 13 August with four attendees.

We currently have an imbalance of resources across Lanarkshire where operational demand does not match where our appliances are based.

The second wholetime appliance was temporarily withdrawn from Hamilton in September 2023 and a permanent equivalent solution is now required. Hamilton station is located close to the arterial road network, but it does not provide efficient coverage of the risk and demand within the Hamilton area. This is why we identified that withdrawing a wholetime pumping appliance would have limited impacts on operational coverage.

Our fire station at Cumbernauld is affected by RAAC and requires urgent action.

It is not possible to repair the station with its current occupancy of two wholetime fire appliances. It is not possible to demolish and rebuild the station on its current site because of the limited size of the site and building footprint. This would also be operationally disruptive and require the creation of a costly temporary station. Rebuilding Cumbernauld station on an alternative site is not currently possible as no suitable site is available.

If the crewing model for one of the appliances was changed to day shift duty system (DSDS) then it would enable remediation work to be undertaken without having to move to a temporary site.

Operational demand at Cumbernauld aligns more with other stations across Scotland with less wholetime resources based there.

Changing one of the appliances at Cumbernauld to DSDS and On Call crewing would ensure we continue to match resources to risk and demand, while enabling the repair of the RAAC roof.

Pros

• Matches resources to operational demand in the area during the busiest times whilst ensuring crewing and delivering prevention activity.
• Makes permanent the essential saving achieved in 2023 by temporarily withdrawing a wholetime pumping appliance from Hamilton.
• Resolves RAAC issue at Cumbernauld; around £5 million property investment avoided.
• Transfer of 14 wholetime staff into key roles across training, prevention and operational resilience.
• Creates on call employment opportunities within Cumbernauld area.

Cons

• Increase in second appliances response times outside day-shift hours in Cumbernauld area.
• Increase in second appliance response times in Hamilton area.