Shropshire fire service suffers biggest cuts in UK
Shropshire's firefighters have suffered the largest percentage cut to their budget of any brigade in the country, officials have claimed.
Councillor Stuart West, chairman of Shropshire and Wrekin Fire Authority, said Shropshire has one of the most poorly funded brigades but has had its grant cut by 22 per cent since 2010 – whereas neighbouring brigades in Staffordshire and in Hereford and Worcester have had cuts of less than eight per cent.
It comes as Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service's chief fire officer Paul Raymond warned that frontline services will have to go, with the organisation facing an additional £1.3 million cut per year until 2016, on top of the £3.2 million already removed from its £20 million annual budget.
Councillor West said: "Our overall grant cut since 2010 has been 22 per cent – the largest percentage cut of any other fire authority. In comparison Hereford and Worcester has had a 7.6 per cent cut and Staffordshire 7.3 per cent.
"We have always said we will make our fair share of cuts to meet the deficit but an extra £1 million will be very difficult to find."
Shropshire Fire and Rescue Service will now be underfunded compared to other areas of the country, officials have claimed. The county's brigade will receive a grant per head of population of £14.13, compared to £24.34 in the West Midlands.
Vij Randeniya, president of the Chief Fire Officers Association, has called for a review of fire service funding after the Government said further cutbacks were needed.
"The notion that fire and rescue services support hundreds of back office staff and are highly inefficient is just flawed," he said.
"More than 85 per cent of our expenditure goes on frontline staff salaries, continuous training and providing essential equipment to deal with the huge range of incidents that the public, and Government, expect us to deal with."
