AFTER officially opening their new premises earlier this year, members of the Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service based in Basingstoke gave the town’s MP an update on all the services latest works.

The revamped £6 million station, in West Ham Close was opened back in February this year, and recently visited by Maria Miller MP to meet with Hampshire’s chief fire officer Neil Odin, and group commander for north Hampshire Ryan Thurman.

During the visit Mrs Miller heard about the collaborative work the service is doing with the Ambulance services, where fire fighters are “Co-Responders”, responding to certain categories of medical emergencies, providing patient care prior to an ambulance being able to attend the incident.

She also heard about the health prevention activity that they carry out, particularly with older people, and also with teenagers, working in partnership with the NHS and local communities.

Mrs Miller said: “It was good to meet the chief fire officer and north Hampshire commander for this update. I was particularly interested to hear about the work they are doing in support of the NHS to improve public health. It is excellent to see this type of collaborative work and the progress that is being made.”

“This new £6 million state-of-the-art facility is of huge benefit to Basingstoke residents, helping to keep us safe, and is an important part of the investment in infrastructure that we need to see go alongside housing development.

“But it is also great to see that it can be used for the benefit of the wider population in Hampshire, for example for training new firefighters. I was very pleased, during my visit, to meet some of the new recruits who have just started their training at the Basingstoke Fire Station.”