By Ursula Duddy
Santa will still be arriving in style next week atop an aerial appliance fire engine despite fears that the 30-year Derry tradition was about to come to an end.
Concerns had been expressed to the Derry News by a number of sources that, due to recent cutbacks, the aerial appliance that transports Santa into the city for the big Christmas lights switch on, was to be shelved.
The fears that Santa’s festive transport for next Thursday night was in jeopardy came after an announcement earlier this month about cutbacks proposed by the Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service (NIFRS).
The news was that there would no longer be a dedicated fire crew to operate the specialist equipment at the Northland Road Fire Station, namely the aerial ladder platform (ALP) that Santa usually arrives in.
Firefighters were told they would now be responsible for attending an additional fire engine at the same time as manning an Aerial Ladder Platform (ALP) fire engine at Northland Road fire station and that a crew is not guaranteed to be available to operate the ALP in the event of an emergency.
In addition, the other fire station in the city, Crescent Link, will have the number of firefighters who crew a specialist rescue appliance reduced from four to two. This is so that they can be sent to cover other under-resourced fire stations.
In light of these proposals, it was feared that the 30-year-long tradition of Santa’s arrival, high above the boys and girls distributing goodies, could have been a thing of the past.
The Derry News made enquiries with the NIFRS press office yesterday about the matter and were awaiting comment.
However, we are reliably informed that the decision was only taken after our call to abandon any suggestion of leaving poor Santa grounded.
The Derry News had similar success in 2010 fire chiefs were forced to make a U-turn on their decision to cut transport for Santa’s Derry school visits because of fuel costs.
Seven years ago, the Derry News had revealed that a decision had been taken by the Northern NIFRS to slash Santa’s fire engine visits to special needs’ schools, primary schools and nursery schools from 200 a year down to a mere three appearances because, they claimed, the cost of diesel involved could not be justified.
However, following a wave of public anger after the story emerged; the Fire Service agreed to assess Santa visits in Derry on a ‘case-by-case basis’.
At the time, Jim Barbour, Executive Council member of the Fire Brigades Union, said that they were surprised when they heard that Derry was being targeted in this way.
“The first we heard of this was when you broke the story. Before that we weren’t aware there was an issue,” he said.
“As soon as we found out about it we contacted local fire-fighters to try and get some information.
“The strange thing is that it only applied in Londonderry, it didn’t apply anywhere else so the NIFRS left themselves very exposed. I think to be fair, given the backlash; they walked themselves into a political and public disaster.
In 2010, he added: “We’re not guaranteeing we will get all 200 visits back but they will be assessed on a case-by case basis.
“So, we’ve saved Santa!”
As far as we are aware, this appears to be Santa’s second reprieve with a bit of help from the Derry News.
Hopefully the NIFRS or the Derry News won’t get a call any time soon to hear that Santa’s got stuck up the chimney!
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