Cllr Wilson said as a member of the Waverley/SCC Locality Partnership he had received an e-mail from a council officer with a warning!

The message was clear. Don’t discuss anything to do with the Surrey Fire & Rescue Service. And! Don’t answer any questions from members of the public either.

Get the drift – The Surrey Stasi are on patrol? 

Cllr Wilson told ‘Your Waverley’s Full council’s Zoom meeting last night that he/they/us/ were to refuse to allow any representation or contact from Surrey’s firefighters.  Siting confidentiality issues connected to a dispute.

A dispute with –  our brave men and women firefighters? The ones that beat a path to our doors in the blink of an eye, day or night to quench the flames, or drag us from our smashed-up cars. Or even act as first responders to save our lives from heart attacks? Yep folks those are they! The reason being that Surrey County Council is having a spat with the men and women who help us to sleep soundly in our homes and they don’t want us talking about it!  Because we are just voting fodder – get it? Pay your rates, put up shut up and certainly don’t stand up for anyone.

Cllr Wilson said he had concerns about the fire services manning and coverage issues that could put Waverley’s residents at risk, particularly when it was being asked to build more and more homes.

“In fact, I would like to hear from our professional fire-fighters. And as I do not wish to see our stations not fully manned I want assurances from the county’s Fire & Rescue service that this will not be the case.”

As it stands, if a member of the pubic raises the issue with us- will they be told there is a trade dispute, and it wouldn’t be appropriate for us to discuss the matter further!”

 “Does this council feel that an attempt by Surrey to stop us discussing changes in fire cover in Surrey is valid? Isn’t our remit to protect our residents? Because I think it is undemocratic and lacking in transparency were we not to do so. Anything that puts the lives of our residents at risk is most definitely our business and should be discussed in an open forum. -Will you support me in this?”

Leader John Ward said the council most certainly would!   Surrey’s attempt to prevent either Waverley or its residents from speaking up on important issues would not be tolerated. The Wellbeing Overview & Scrutiny Committee would certainly be discussing it.

“However, whilst however senior another council may consider itself to be in terms of its own importance Waverley would not be guided by what another council tells us.”

So there you have it, folks. If you are a local fire-fighter and want to get in touch with Cllr George Wilson – here’s his e-mail address: But, whatever you don’t tell him indoors! Or likely you will be looking elsewhere for work. Or it could be – as the song goes –  burn, baby burn when you gonna learn to put out that fire?

Mobile:  07508 839242

Bus. email:  george.wilson@waverley.gov.uk