A FIRE engine will be taken away from a Barnsley station after councillors approved the service’s risk management plan on Monday at the town hall.

The service’s community risk management plan for 2025 to 2028 sets out the service’s objectives over the next three years and has been in the public consultation stage for a number of months after it was released in November.

The plan was fully approved by councillors on Monday in the council chamber, and any changes will come into force on April 1.

Bosses say they want to remove inefficiency, boost performance and embed an inclusive workplace culture as it strives to become one of the country’s leading fire and rescue services.

The only change to how it responds to 999 calls will see a vehicle which is used to respond to small incidents like grass and bin fires move from Cudworth to Dearne fire station.

The fire service says this would be a better location for the vehicle based on incident data analysed as part of a full review of all its fire stations and fire engines.

The report states: “The data shows that we should move the small incident unit from Cudworth fire station to Dearne fire station.

“This is the best location for the unit based on the fire cover review.

“This is because the vehicle is able to reach a larger number of incidents from there than its current location.

“We also plan to extend the remit of the small incident unit to include calls where we help the ambulance service to gain entry to properties, thereby keeping the existing fire engines at Dearne available for fire service 999 calls.

“The small incident unit will be crewed by existing on-call firefighters at Dearne - providing the option to mobilise either the small incident unit or a full sized fire engine, depending on the nature of the incident.”

Almost 300 people responded to the consultation, 76 per cent of which were members of the public.

A total of 18 per cent were staff and six per cent represented partner agencies.

The majority of respondents agreed with the fire service’s plan.

Assistant chief fire officer Simon Dunker, said: “Thank you to everyone who read and gave us feedback on our plans for the next three years.

“Responding to emergencies efficiently and effectively remains our number one priority as a fire and rescue service.

“But we also deliver other important work to make local people safer and our community risk management plan is a way we demonstrate how we combine all our resources to address risks in South Yorkshire.”