On Monday 7^th March, James Cleverly the MP for Braintree spoke in Parliament about the way in which fire and rescue services in Sussex are organized. He pointed out that “There are also far too many fire authorities in the country. Fire authorities and brigades do a good job, but I struggle to comprehend how the fire and rescue requirements of East Sussex can be so fundamentally different from those of West Sussex.” It is a useful reminder of the consultation carried out by the two fire and rescue services five years ago when local residents were invited to express their views regarding a possible merger. At the time there was clear support for bringing together these two organisations in order to reduce running costs and improve services across Sussex as a whole. The decision to reject this proposal was taken by West Sussex County Council. It is 5 years since our views were collected only to be ignored and the proposals were ditched. It is time to look again at this. The arguments for retaining two distinct services with their substantially different governance structures makes no sense, despite the hard work carried out at all levels within the organisations to create links operationally. It is widely known that the Government is wanting to bring together all of the blue light services, placing them all under the governance of the Police and Crime Commissioner. This would be a mistake denying the opportunity for PCC’s to pull together the criminal justice system, something the Government should also focus on. However retaining two fire and rescue services in Sussex is also a mistake, one that must also be put right.