Proposals to create 20 new wholetime firefighter posts and introduce 24/7 wholetime cover at Grantham Fire Station have been recommended for approval by Lincolnshire County Council’s Community Safety Scrutiny Committee on Tuesday 8 September.
The proposals form part of Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue’s review of its emergency response arrangements and are designed to strengthen resilience, improve firefighter availability and help ensure the service remains sustainable in the future.
If approved by the council’s Executive in October, Grantham would become Lincolnshire’s second 24/7 wholetime fire station, with 13 new wholetime positions, and an additional firefighter role would be established at each of the seven remaining wholetime day-crewed stations.
Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue’s 29 on-call stations would remain unchanged under the proposals.
The scrutiny committee’s recommendation follows a public engagement exercise held in August, which helped gather feedback from residents, businesses, elected members and stakeholders.
Mark Baxter, Chief Fire Officer at Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue, said: “These proposals are about ensuring we have the right resources in the right places at the right times to meet current and future demand across Lincolnshire.
“The changes look to enhance our wholetime cover when on-call availability is typically at its lowest. On call are a critical part of our service and would absolutely remain so under these or any proposals.
“On call are an absolutely critical part of our service, and would absolutely remain so under these proposals. The changes we are suggesting look to increase our wholetime cover when on-call availability is at its lowest and our demand are at its highest, giving us greater resilience and sustainability going forward.
“The feedback from our engagement has been invaluable in helping us understand people’s views and concerns. In general terms people have understood the rationale behind these proposed changes, and we thank everyone who took part and shared their thoughts.
“Now this has been recommended by the relevant scrutiny committee, we’ll be taking forward the preferred option to the Council’s Executive for approval.”
The proposals will be considered by Lincolnshire County Council’s Executive on 6 October 2026. If approved, implementation would begin from January 2027.
What the engagement said:
- 609 responses were received during the three-week engagement period
- 86% of respondents said they understood the need to provide effective emergency response cover in a cost-efficient way
- 85% said they understood the need to match resources to areas of highest demand
- 83% said they understood its connection to the need to make the most of opportunities to employ the best possible firefighters
- feedback showed broad support for increasing wholetime firefighter numbers and introducing 24/7 wholetime cover at Grantham Fire Station
