I WAS lucky to get into the consultation meeting on Monday, October 27, and at least hear if not see what was going on.

After much management-speak about the agonies endured by Fire & Rescue trying to cut down the number of firemen all over Merseyside, a few timely boos finally got the Chief Fire Officer talking about the bits of Northwest and central Wirral which were the real point of the meeting.

Very neatly Fire & Rescue and Wirral planning committee have carved up the responsibilities between them so that Fire & Rescue can claim only to be concerned about employment and the so called ten-minute “isochrones” from various stations to the scene of a fire. 

Dictionary definition: An “isochrone” is a line or diagram or map connecting points relating to the same time or equal times.

I doubt if an isochrone is a good substitute for actually travelling along the route to a fire at breakneck speed.

Wirral Council will be responsible for demolishing Greasby Library, persuading the community centre to be annihilated and building a fire station with library and centre somewhere (where?) on a most unsuitable piece of ground with its dip down to the car park below. What about the trees? Will they also be removed? Thus Fire & Rescue and the council can claim that they are dealing with two separate projects. 

There is the strong suspicion that the fire station is being pushed at Greasby’s indignant residents so that the Upton Fire Station can be the one expanded in the end, everyone will heave a sigh of relief – and forget West Kirby.

All this makes me even more cynical about the so called democracy in which we live in today’s Britain. 

Our local civil servants and councillors seem to tie up everything beforehand so that consultations have become meaningless.

Mrs Evelyn Campbell Smith, Greasby.