Judith Phillips has just tweeted:
"Traffic chaos on the A55 today highlights the fire service aerial platform issue.
Read about it in tomorrow's North wales Weekly News."
Llandudno hotel fire sparks response time fears
http://www.northwalesweeklynews.co.uk/conwy-county-news/local-conwy-news/2012/08/02/llandudno-hotel-fire-sparks-response-time-fears-55243-31526759/CAMPAIGNERS are furious after a vital piece of firefighting equipment took 26 minutes to reach a blaze which broke out in a derelict hotel in the middle of the night.
They say the length of time it took for the aerial ladder platform (ALP) to travel from Rhyl to Llandudno at 2.15am on Saturday blows a hole in claims that a 30-minute reponse time at peak traffic times is achievable.
And hotelier David Williams, chairman of the resort’s Hospitality Association which backed a Weekly News campaign to keep the ALP in Llandudno and not transfer it to Rhyl, feels lives are being put at risk.
“The time it took the ALP to reach Llandudno in the middle of the night when the roads would have been quiet bears out what we were saying,” he said.
“We don’t want to see a loss of life just to prove our point, and I urge North Wales Fire Service to reconsider its decision.
“Relocating the ladder platform to Colwyn Bay would have been acceptable, but this incident has proved that taking it to Rhyl means their projection of a 30-minute response time even when the roads are busy doesn’t stand up,” he said.
He added that if the derelict Tudno Castle Hotel in Vaughan Street had been occupied at the time of the fire, lives would have been at risk.
It’s a view echoed by county councillor and hotelier Janet Haworth who said she would be contacting Conwy MP Guto Bebb to ask him to raise the issue again with the Fire Authority.
“I have said all along that the projected response time from Rhyl, which was based on computer modelling, was unrealistic and places people in high rise buildings in Llandudno at risk,” she said.
“If there is a lot of traffic on the A55 it’s going to slow down the journey.”
And resident Ian Turner, who vociferously backed our campaign, added: “I believe people could die if the ALP is kept in Rhyl and this response time in the middle of the night bears that out.”
Yesterday an overturned lorry blocked the eastbound A55 between Bangor and Llanfairfechan, meaning the road was completely blocked for hours.
“This is a perfect example of the sort of thing that happens on the A55 regularly, and a fire engine even, with its blue lights flashing, wouldn’t be able to get through,” he stressed.
There are 1,700 tall buildings in Llandudno on a list which stipulates an ALP should attend if fire breaks out. When the Weekly News started its campaign to keep the equipment in Llandudno in March, 700 people signed a petition in only two weeks.
But despite calls from the town and county councils and politicians to change its mind, the Fire Authority pressed ahead with its plans to reduce the number of ALPs in North Wales from four to three and transfer the Llandudno platform to Rhyl.
The Fire Service said the fire at the Tudno Castle Hotel was as the result of arson.