A groundbreaking new scheme is offering potentially life-saving advice to mobile library users in rural parts of North Cumbria.
Cumbria Fire & Rescue Service has teamed up with Cumbria County Council’s Library Service to offer free Home Safety Checks and fire prevention advice to mobile library customers in remote rural areas.
Armed with free smoke detectors, community safety officers will be hitching a ride with the mobile library van to Culgaith on Thursday 24 August where members of the media are invited to join them at 11:45am.
There will a media opportunity to talk to mobile library customers as well to interview Cumbria Fire & Rescue Service's Community Safety Officer Sean Atkinson.
Cumbria’s Chief Fire Officer Bernard Dolan said: “By sending community safety officers out with mobile library vans we can provide fire prevention advice to more people in often hard to reach rural areas.”
Cumbria County Council's Library Operations Manager Liz Bowe said: "By their very nature, the mobile library vans visit people who often live in remote rural areas.
"As well as providing invaluable safety advice to people in rural communities, we hope that this initiative will encourage more people to come along and see what the County Council's mobile libraries have to offer."
Since 2003, the number of Home Safety Checks carried out by firefighters and community safety officers in Cumbria has increased by 76 per cent. During the same period, the number of people injured in house fires has fallen by two thirds.
Cumbria County Council has a fleet of seven mobile libraries offering a wide range of services to people of all ages including those who are unable to visit their local library owing to illness, disability, frailty, immobility and to those providing full time care to others.
The new scheme is currently being piloted in North Cumbria and may be expanded to other parts of the county if succesful.
Cumbria Fire & Rescue Service also operates a freephone number (0800-358-4777) which people can call to arrange a Home Safety Check and receive other useful community safety information.
More information on the County Council's mobile library service can be found at on the council's website at www.cumbriacc.gov.uk/libraries
Notes for Editors
1. To rendezvous with community safety officers on the mobile library in Culgaith, members of the media should approach the Culgaith from Langwathby on the B6412. The mobile library van will arrive on a ‘green’ in the village which is situated just past a row of bungalows on the right hand side of the road and houses on the left which drivers will see upon entering Culgaith.
The mobile library will be at this stop from 11:45am to 12:05pm before departing for two other stops in the village. The mobile library will leave Culgaith at 12:45pm.
2. This year, Cumbria Fire and Rescue Service has carried out 10,000 free Home Safety Checks. A 75 per cent increase from 2003-04.
Over the same period the number of people injured in accidental dwelling fires fell from 14 per 100,000 to 5 per 100,000 - a drop of 65 per cent.
3. Cumbria County Council's mobile library service provides the opportunity to browse through a good selection of stock and help and advice is always available. Membership is free.