CONSERVATIVE leadership contender Boris Johnson this week endorsed the campaign to stop Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service closing Porlock fire station as part of its cuts programme.

He stepped into the campaign after being briefed by local MP Ian Liddell-Grainger, seen showing him last week’s Free Press report on the launch of the village’s campaign.

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Mr Liddell-Grainger said: “The fire service needs to be told that closing Porlock fire station is utterly unacceptable.

“Boris was brought up on Exmoor and he fully appreciates the need to have a decent level of fire cover, given the preponderance of old houses, many of them thatched, and the increasingly high fire risk to moorland posed by climate change.”

Mr Liddell-Grainger said he fully appreciated the difficulties of recruiting enough retained fire-fighters in some areas.

“But when one discovers how stretched fire cover is already, it is unthinkable that further reductions are being proposed as the only solution to budgetary pressures.

“Last weekend, for instance, a crew from Minehead was deployed to stand by at Bridgwater then tasked to attend a fire at Lympsham.

“That’s 40 miles, or an hour and 20 minutes’ drive from their base – and all the time Minehead was left with just one crew to cover all eventualities.

“The only result of downgrading fire cover further will be enormously increased risks of damage to lives and property. It must be stopped.”