By John Lamont MP
Hawick Fire Station is a vital local presence that serves the local community well and keeps the public safe.
The firefighters based at the station work all hours of the day and night to protect local families and businesses.
Proposals to downgrade the service are misguided and flawed. If they went ahead, it would mean the station is a daytime-only service and there would no longer be the same level of 24/7 cover in the event of an emergency.
There is no doubt in my mind, or in the minds of most local residents I've spoken to, that this would put public safety at risk.
For instance, two local residents, Kevin and Diane White, were quoted in the media on this issue last year. They experienced a fire a few years ago and said it "scares us to think if anything ever did happen like that again" after they heard the new plans.
The Fire Brigade Union has also said that "the downgrade of Hawick Fire Station from the 24/7 cover to a day shift duty system with on-call in the evenings and weekends will potentially cost lives due to the slow response times."
The proposals also do not seem to fully account for the possibility of the new Center Parcs development just outside the town, which will potentially bring in tens of thousands of extra visitors each year.
The plans are bad enough but now it has emerged that there will be a six-month delay before a decision is reached on the future of the station. A decision that was supposed to be made in December 2025 will now not be made until June this year, after the Scottish Parliament elections in May.
Leaving communities in limbo for another six months will fuel uncertainty and leave local people worried that the decision may go the wrong way. It's not right and the delay beyond the election date does seem suspicious. It certainly gives the impression that the decision has been subject to political influence.
Public safety must always come before politics. A full-time service at Hawick Fire Station is vital for public safety and so it must remain operational 24/7. Anything less would potentially put lives at risk, so there really is no excuse for delaying this decision.
