MP joins fight for return of Waverley fire siren

WHANGANUI MP Chester Borrows last night joined forces with Waverley woman Sue Clark to have the town's fire siren switched back on.
Advised last night by the Chronicle that Miss Clark on Friday would present a 296-signature petition to have the siren reinstated, Mr Borrows in offering his support said he would take the matter up with the Minister of Internal Affairs.
Stunned to learn the siren was silenced eight weeks ago because of ongoing complaints from a handful of people upset by its noise level, he said such people needed to be a lot more understanding of emergency services especially those staffed by volunteers.
"A fire siren is not subject to noise control levels. Sirens are essential. The people who make complaints about the noise are undervaluing our firefighters."
Miss Clark learned the siren had been silenced from an article in last Thursday's Chronicle.
"Outraged at the danger this poses to the town and surrounding rural areas" she immediately began a petition to have it reinstated.
Born and bred in Waverley, she was a security guard for seven years in Auckland before returning in 2006 to look after her parents, Melva and Don Clark.
"A group of others and myself will present the petition to Waverley chief fire officer Alan Hickford at the Fire Station on Friday at 7pm and welcome anyone who wants to join us. And it is wonderful that Mr Borrows has just rung me. He can't attend on Friday but has put in his apology.
"It is absolutely ridiculous to have the siren turned off without it there is no way of letting the firefighters here know they are needed, or the people that something major has happened.
"Fires, accidents and the like happen without warning, like last week's tornado.
"If the tornado had struck here the people who object to the siren's sound would know first hand what it is like to have no secure alert system," Miss Clark said.
The petition was circulated in the town's Rainbow Dairy, Black Lady Caf?, Waverley Butcher Shop, Waverley Garage she personally took it to the town's two hotels and shopping centre.
She only had one knock-back and that was in a store where the person spoken to did not want the petition form left there.
"Everybody else wanted the siren reinstated. Most couldn't believe it had been turned off because of complaints that it was too noisy.
"Some of the people I spoke to were scared of having a fire in their home and firefighters not getting there in time because the paging system does not work in some areas here. A number of houses here have traditional fireplaces.
"Farmers are very concerned. One mentioned he felt reassured help was on its way whenever he heard the siren, although he didn't know where or what the call out was to."
Waitotara people also were horrified to learn the siren had been switched off as Waverley firefighters from time to time were called there to assist the Waitotara Fire Brigade, which like Waverley's was a volunteer one.
Waverley fire chief Alan Hickford last week said he had major concerns the volunteer brigade was now relying on Telecom's paging system to alert firefighters.
The pagers were unreliable in that area and already there had been a couple of incidents where some crew didn't get notified, he said.