If firefighters vote for strike action, Army Green Goddesses will be used

The latest deadlock comes after a potential "peace deal" collapsed last week, with each side blaming the other.

The employers said it came unstuck when union leaders refused to accept public holidays should be normal working days.

The Fire Brigades' Union claims the deal was scuppered when councillors who "flooded" the talks voted it down.

It's desperately urgent that the employers and the union come back round the table Christina Jebb

A week later, claims and counter-claims continue to fly and neither side seems any closer to agreement.

The FBU is balloting its 52,000 members on strike action, with the vote closing on 31 August and the result expected a day later.

And no replacement has yet been found for Christina Jebb, the chairwoman of the employers' negotiating team sacked on Thursday for opposing the LGA's official line.

She urged both sides to renew negotiations - and warned that the employers now faced an "extraordinarily difficult situation".

Deal derailed

She told BBC News Online: "We are facing a strike ballot and it's a strike that nobody wants.

"The firefighters don't want to go on strike, the employers don't want a strike and we as a community don't want it.

"So it's desperately urgent that the employers and the union come back round the table and resolve the situation."

Ms Jebb said the provisional deal had been derailed because newcomers to the committee had voted against it without understanding the ramifications.

We cannot have our agenda driven by the FBU and balloting for strike action John Ransford, LGA

She said the form of words put forward had been "acceptable to almost everybody" - and agreed with FBU claims that the LGA's focus on public holiday working was unwarranted.

"It's only a very small part of the whole thing," she said. "It certainly wasn't anything to justify bringing the situation into the chaos that occurred last week."

John Ransford, of the LGA, told BBC News Online the employers' next meeting was likely to be held on 25 and 26 August - only a week before the FBU's ballot on strike action concludes.

The delay was inevitable because of the holiday season, he said, but they would probably appoint a new chairman then.

Mr Ransford said: "We cannot have our agenda driven by the FBU and balloting for strike action.

Employers 'in disarray'

"Our concern is to sort out this matter. The employers have still got a clear policy and we will continue to pursue that policy and hopefully resolve this dispute during August."

Meanwhile the union claims the LGA's insistence on normal working for public holidays would cost the employers an extra �30m annually because it would mean full staffing.

FBU national officer John McGhee told BBC News Online the real issue was the 3.5% pay rise outstanding since last November and a further 4.2% owed since July.

He accused the employers of being in disarray, with fire authorities split over the proposed peace deal.

The employers want fire crews to work as normal on public holidays

Mr McGhee said: "We are pressing them to get their act sorted out, that is to elect a new chair... and to get a new negotiating session together so we can basically get the deal done which we thought was done a week ago."

He stuck by the FBU's claim the LGA deliberately "packed" the meeting with Labour councillors to vote against the deal.

The LGA argued councillors had to be drafted in because of holiday absences.

Cllr Brian Coleman, Tory leader on London's Fire Authority, said many at the meeting had been "disgusted" by the LGA's behaviour.

He said fire authorities in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, as well as Liberal Democrat councillors, all wanted a settlement on the terms put forward last week.

'Not unreasonable'

"The LGA has got to listen to its members," he said. "The dismissal of Christina Jebb was a disgrace."

But Mr Ransford maintained the LGA's position that it was "not unreasonable" to expect firefighters to carry out normal duties in return for the double pay and day-off-in-lieu they receive for public holiday working.

He rejected the FBU's claim it would cost �30m a year.

"All we are talking about is making sure people who are required to work on public holidays work normally on public holidays," he said.

"They [the FBU] are on such weak ground on this that they are trying to undermine the issue. There will be no significant cost increases at all."

Meanwhile the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister condemned the FBU's ballot for industrial action as "totally irresponsible" and warned that "further strikes by the union put lives and property at risk".