Fire engine

BUILDING work is set to start in the coming weeks on a £1million fire station for Cambourne.

BUILDING work is set to start in the coming weeks on a £1million fire station for Cambourne.

The site will be handed over to M.A.R.S (Construction) Ltd of Chatteris on Monday, September 6 and work could begin as early as the following week.

Mark Pettitt, senior director for M.A.R.S said: “We are delighted to have secured this project and to be working with Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service to deliver this valuable and strategically important facility.”

The new community fire station will be located on land to the south of Back Lane in Cambourne and is expected to be completed in April next year.

Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service was allocated the land as part of a Section 106 agreement and was given it free of charge along with £558,000 of funding.

Graham Stagg, chief fire officer for Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service said: “This is the first fire station to be built in Cambridgeshire since 1987 and we are delighted that the contract has been given to a local firm.”

The Cambourne fire station project hit the headlines earlier this year after it was revealed that the site would not initially house a fire engine.

Fire officers said the building would be used primarily as a base for the South Cambridgeshire district team, specialising in preventing fires and working with businesses to protect their staff and visitors from fire.

A fire service spokesman said when the risk in Cambourne exceeds the risk in Papworth the fire service will look to move its fire engine to Cambourne.

Mr Stagg said: “It is better to have the station in place now at a low cost to the taxpayer, than to have to pay a vastly inflated price for the same facility in the future – especially as we can utilise the building now as part of our wider role in the community.”