There are no plans to move operations or staff out of Lithgow as part of a restructure within the NSW Rural Fire Service (RFS), district operations coordinator Gary Hansen has stated.
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The issue was raised at Monday night's Lithgow City Council meeting as a matter of urgency, with concerns stated that changes within the Rural Fire Service could see Lithgow lose its local office.
Deputy mayor Cr Wayne McAndrew said "a number of rumours" had been circulating which suggested that Bathurst's office would be taking over all the local operations.
"Concerns that currently we've got our own Lithgow Rural Fire Service situated in Lithgow dealing with all our local government area, sometimes assisting the Blue Mountains as well," he said.
He said it would be concerning to lose a local office, as Lithgow faced significantly greater risk of large scale fires, given it backed on to the Blue Mountains, than many centres in the Central West.
The council voted to engage with Bathurst MP Paul Toole and the relevant NSW Government Minister to address its concerns.
NSW RFS's Gary Hansen told the Lithgow Mercury there was no plan or discussions under way to move the RFS out of Lithgow. He said state-wide changes in the RFS were being made at a higher level.
The NSW RFS will establish seven management areas across the state, replacing the four existing regions. The new regional office for Lithgow Chifley will be based at Cowra rather than Hornsby, Mr Hansen said.
"There will be no change of staffing or location of offices [for Lithgow]," Mr Hansen said.
"You could say that having the region office in Cowra will be more relevant for us is some ways."
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