Newcastle South Community Fire Station

Newcastle South Station

Our Station

Built in 2005, Newcastle South Community Fire Station (formerly Colby Court Community Fire Station) is located on the junction of Elswick Road and Rye Hill, on the western boundary of the city of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. The council wards encompassed within its boundary are Westgate, Benwell and Scotswood, Fenham, Wingrove and Elswick. It also covers two parliamentary constituencies, Newcastle Central and Tyne Bridge.

The personnel are our main asset and, in addition to responding to a wide range of emergencies, they undertake a substantial amount of Community Safety activities that are primarily aimed at preventing fires, deaths and injuries at incidents.

The station includes a Community Safety centre, housing the Community Safety Team, the Young Fire-fighters Association and the Arson Task Force. The former is a scheme to provide training and development opportunities to young people of Tyne and Wear principally through Fire Service related activities. The latter a partnership between the Fire and Rescue Service and the Police force with specific aims to drive down crimes such as arson and make the West End and the city of Newcastle a safer place to live and visit.

The Community Safety centre boasts a 200 capacity auditorium with state of the art IT presentation capabilities, a number of meeting rooms and a computer suite, including access to the Internet, to assist with further educational. This entire facilitywhich has been designed to be fully accessibleand hence, enable usage by all of our visitors, is within a fully functional community fire station.

The Area

The geographical area covered by this station is the most diverse in the fire service area. It consists of a large amount of residential property, ranging from the more socially deprived neighbourhoods located within isolated pockets to substantial commercial and industrial premises. We have two major hospitals, two universities, a large indoor retail shopping complex and a huge variety of entertainment establishments, a football stadium with a 55,000 capacity, a variety of metro and rail stations and track, plus other large typical city centre risks.

The population residing in the area, based on the 2001 Census, is 40,925 persons who are from various ethnic backgrounds. These include Anglo-Saxon’s (68.2%), non-UK origin (14.15%) and non-white (17.3%). There are 18,693 dwellings within the station area with approximately:

31.6 % Owner Occupied
29.3 % Local Authority Rented
18.3 % Privately Rented
15.8 % Housing Association Rented

Single parent families occupy 8.6 % of dwellings, with 14.8% single pensioner households and 25.6% households with dependant children numbers

Levels of unemployment across this area vary from 10.6% for males to 5.0% for females. These figures reflect the socio-economic groups residing within individual neighbourhoods, which can be linked to the risk of dwelling fires occurring within the area. This is illustrated in the above map (the red indicates areas where the risk of having a dwelling fire is well above average, orange is above average, yellow is average, blue is below average and green is well below average).

With the station covering a major city complex as well as a highly populated residential area the population varies from night to day and depending on the day of the week as people enter and leave the city. The ‘west end’ of this area has historically been one of the busiest in the Tyne and Wear area for incidents and many initiatives have been set up in the preceding years to reduce the numbers. These initiatives have met with some success, however the amalgamation of two busy fire stations, which led to the opening of this new fire station, means that incident totals are much higher than those for the other Tyne and Wear fire stations.

Young Firefighters in Action

Introduction

In September 1992, Tyne and Wear Metropolitan Fire Service, in partnership with the Newcastle City Challenge, opened its first branch of the Young Firefighters Association at the West Road Fire Station. The primary strategic objective was to strengthen the social and community infrastructure, which after the inner city disturbance had become a little fragile.

Young people who were accepted into the organisation came from a wide and varied background. Those who were at risk of offending, non-attendees at school, as well as those who academically were doing well and who were expected to progress into further education. This fine balance of character and personality helped to set the foundations of a successful Branch.

What We Offer

During the meetings the Young Firefighters are given practical and theoretical instructions on Fire Service related subjects. The training is of a comparable standard to that of operational firefighters taking into account age, height and weight differences.

In addition to the weekly meetings, Young Firefighters are also involved in:

attending Fire Service ceremonial occasions
displaying their skills on open days and summer fairs, attending drill comps.
High Sheriff award scheme
public relations in the community
National and International Camps (Croatia, Finland, Holland, France)

Young Firefighter Association

Aims and Objectives

To enable young people aged between 13 and 17 to join a uniformed organisation associated with the Fire Service.
To aid personal development mentally, physically and socially.
To help develop leadership qualities and the ability to try new experiences.
To help develop team skills with mutual support.

YFA Application Form - [162 KB] Application Form and Information for the Young Firefighters Association.

Newcastle South Community Fire Station

Our Station

The Area

Introduction

What We Offer

Aims and Objectives

Contact Us

Address

Telephone

e-Mail