A rally opposing cuts to the fire service across North Wales saw more than 100 firefighters and supporters come together in Wrexham.

The rally, at Queen’s Square, today (Saturday, September 30) demonstrated the Fire Brigades Union’s campaign ‘Save Our Fire Service’ in the rain.

 The campaign opposes the options presented in a consultation, with three options resulting in a reduction to fire cover.

The first option is that full-time firefighters would be put on duty during the day in Corwen, Dolgellau and Porthmadog.

The second option would include the above, but cut one of the three fire engines based in Wrexham, with 22 firefighter jobs also to be cut.

The Leader: The crowd at the rally The crowd at the rally (Image: Newsquest)

Third, would include the first two options, plus the closures of Abersoch, Beaumaris, Cerrigydrudion, Conwy and Llanberis fire stations. This would result in a total loss of 36 full-time firefighters and 38 on-call firefighters.

All options include removing the night shift at Rhyl and Deeside fire stations, which would leave just on-call staff.

The union has instead put forwards two alternative proposals for growth and investment in the service instead.

On the rally, Mark Jones, who retired from the fire service in 2008 and was in attendance, said: “I think it’s good for the public to see that we’re here, from firefighters of what the options are and why they want to retain their crews, why they want to keep the establishment as it is and why they need to keep the fire engine in Wrexham.”

Others liked the idea of keeping the public informed, or be more informed of how stretched the fire service is, “when it should be growing”.

Speakers at the rally included Plaid Cymru county councillor Carrie Harper, Wales TUC general secretary Shavanah Taj, Councillor Dana Davies, representatives from Unite the Union, and FBU representatives including assistant general secretary Ben Selby.