The signing and financial closure of the Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service PFI took place in London a few days ago.

The blue3 consortium, formed through a partnership between Kier and Calderpeel, will be responsible for the design, construction and ongoing maintenance of the buildings of eleven new community fire stations for Staffordshire.

Funding of £45 million has been made available from the Government's Private Finance Initiative scheme.

The project:

The project is the second phase of an innovative programme to provide state-of-the-art fire stations across Staffordshire which are also community-focused with facilities to benefit local people.

1. Phase one of the scheme received £45m in funding and saw three additional stations developed and seven stations replaced between October 2009 and September 2011.
2. Phase two will see a further 10 fire stations rebuilt on their current sites plus a brand new station at Loggerheads to replace a 45-year-old station at Ashley. 

The new stations will be equipped with hi-tech operational facilities and have space for more community safety activities such as Student Firefighter courses.

All of the new stations also incorporate dedicated rooms and amenities for the benefit of community groups, while stations crewed round the clock will have fitness equipment that can be used by supervised groups.

Source: Staffordshire fire