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>> SIMON TATTERSALL: Thank you very much for attending today on probably a quite seasonal
April day for Gillingham's open day. It's an open day with a difference, in so much
as we've spent a significant sum of money upgrading the facilities here at the fire
station to make it community fit. So obviously it's a community facility and to mark that
occasion we've invited your Mayor, Counsellor Milsted, to officially open that element of
the station, by asking him to unveil the plaque as well.
>> DAVID MILSTED: First of all I want to say a big thank you to Chris and all his crew
here at Gillingham Fire Station for their hospitality today and for the brilliant demonstration
we've just seen by the Christchurch extrication crew, thank you very much indeed. I was here
earlier in my Mayoral year when Chris and his colleagues very kindly offered to share
the proceeds of the car wash with the Mayor's charity, which is to restore our war memorial
here in Gillingham and even kinder they let me join in the car wash with a sponge! And
we split the proceeds 50-50 and that was brilliant. So today, I don't want to hold you up in your
buying of stuff; cakes, toys, raffle tickets and what have you. That's all going to the
Fire Fighters Charity. I've got two badges on today because I'm a Member of Dorset Fire
Authority and I know how very important it is and highly we prize the fact that we want
all our fire stations across Dorset and in Bournemouth and Poole to be full community
facilities and accessible to all the people. It's very, very important to spread the message
of fire safety and fire prevention and we are very much a part of the community and
especially here in the rural areas, 84%/85% of all the fire cover in the Dorset Fire and
Rescue Service area is provided by on-call firefighters. I don't call them "The Retained"
because that sounds like there are two classes of firefighters and there aren't. They are
all deeply professional firefighters, the difference is that our's here are on call
24 hours a day, seven days a week, 52 weeks a year - all the time. And they do a brilliant
job and we're very, very grateful for it. As Mayor, I also know how important it is
for all our many local organisations and charities (and you would be astonished at how many there
are) I thought I new pretty much what they were, but in my Mayoral year I've met so many.
And so much of the life of our town that we take for granted depends on people volunteering,
and they need space to meet and do things. And the deal here is that so long as they
spread the message of home safety referrals, risk checks, smoke alarm fittings (and they
are still free! We can still just afford them!). So long as they do that, they get to use this
place for nothing. And they can come in here, without interfering with the work of the fire
station. This will be a brilliant facility for the whole town to add to the great work
that the firefighters here do. And so, I have here a plaque (nice and shiny!) and I am now
going to unveil it with great pleasure and a lot of pride! Thank you very much.