The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service says Gourock Fire Station needs extending or possibly replacing to provide modern fire department facilities, with its Board meeting today on the nationwide Service Delivery Review. The report points to either work on the existing site or a new-build alternative, and both options feed into a decision that will shape the station’s future in Inverclyde.
The report says the station will require extending to accommodate modern dignified and decontamination facilities at its current occupancy. It also says a new-build fire station on an alternative site may be a better financial option because of the size of the existing plot, and that a new site would be required if occupancy were to increase.
Gourock Fire Station report
An SFRS survey in 2024 classed Gourock as being in poor condition. A freedom of information request submitted by the Telegraph at the end of last year showed the station had needed more than £100,000 of repair and maintenance works since 2020. The station’s condition is being assessed as part of a 1,770-page review that also includes proposed changes elsewhere in the service.
That wider review has already been linked to other proposed changes, including 15 firefighter posts, so the Gourock decision sits inside a larger reshaping of fire cover and staffing. For people using or working from Gourock Fire Station, the immediate practical question is whether the service chooses to extend the current building, move to a new plot, or leave the station unchanged for now.
Tommy McVey on Inverclyde
Councillor Tommy McVey, who has campaigned against cuts to local fire services, said he has been raising concerns about future SFRS coverage in Inverclyde since 2019. He said the idea that a new fire station will be built in Gourock is absolute pie in the sky because of the SFRS’s £800 million capital works backlog.
McVey said he expects a reduction in the number of fire stations in Inverclyde at some point in the future, while saying it remains to be seen whether Gourock station will be the one that closes. He also said he and Councillor Colin Jackson have supported the Fire Brigades Union’s Cuts Leave Scars campaign, and added: “Hopefully, now that the chickens are coming home to roost, we will see an increase in support for that campaign.”
Paul Cassidy on details
Councillor Paul Cassidy, who sits on the council’s local police and fire scrutiny panel, said an upgrade or expansion would be welcomed under certain circumstances. “But he made it clear that the devil is in the details,” he said, leaving the board’s discussion today to determine whether Gourock gets investment on its existing site or faces a longer wait under the service’s capital constraints.
