CORNWALL councillor Andrew Long has urged the council to intervene and unblock the impasse to allow contract hours to be reduced so more volunteers can join the fire service.

Cllr Andrew Long, Mebyon Kernow’s representative for Callington and St Dominic has made the plea after it emerged that a young volunteer was unable to join due to his living away from the town, although he works in the community every day of the week.

‘Callington is no different than most other retained fire stations across the Duchy in that the one area where they struggle is for daytime cover during the working week. We have a volunteer who wants to join but doesn’t live in the parish but commutes here to work. His employer is willing for him to join but with the minimum contract requirement of 96 hours he cannot fulfil that as he lives too far away,’ said Cllr Long.

“I have requested that the Portfolio Holder intervenes as there is general agreement from the unions and the fire service to change the contact hours but for some reason it is getting bogged down in the council somewhere.

‘Callington Fire Station has an excellent group of people who provide incredible service to the community but the daytime needs often stretches them to the limit so having” “in town” workers being able to join could provide that additional support,’ he added.

Callington covers a wide area in East Cornwall as well as providing back up for colleagues across the border on occasions.,’ said the councillor.

‘It recently held an open day, partly to attract new volunteers but the difficulties of the contact length could be a hindrance for new members.’