A Fareham councillor has urged that a retained fire station scheduled to close must be kept open to serve the fast-growing Whiteley community.

Jack Englefield says Hampshire Fire Authority must be informed of plans to build high-density housing at Whiteley in consideration to the fire station, which serves the Whiteley community.

He claims the only fire station that can respond in time is Titchfield fire station, which is scheduled to be shut down.

Firefighters at the station are battling to keep it open.

At a meeting of Whiteley Joint Committee, attended by members from Fareham Borough and Winchester City Councils, both of which administer Whiteley, the committee heard that around 100 high density homes were planned.

This would be in the region of about 30 homes to the acre, some of it social housing.

A specific arrival time of ten minutes has been set for fire crews to reach high-density areas and the only station that can get to Whiteley in time is Titchfield, claims a spokesman for the station.

"We told the fire authority this when it was first mooted that the station should close,'' he said. "We can get to Whiteley in time but others can't.

"Fifty per cent of our calls come from Whiteley, especially from the business park, with automatic fire alarms there.' ' At the meeting Mr Englefield said: "At the moment Titchfield is responsible for Whiteley.

"I thought we had been told there was to be no high-density housing but it seems that there is.

"If we are going to have social housing then the fire authority should be pre-warned about this intention before next year.

"As I understand it the fire authority is not aware of this.''

No one from Hampshire Fire Authority was available for comment.

Converted for the new archive on 25 January 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.