The fire authority says it would have to lay off as many as 180 staff

In its first year of setting its own budget, the authority asked for �26m - an increase of nearly 30% on 2003-4.

That figure led to the local government minister imposing a �2.5m cut.

But the authority says its original budget will cost the average council taxpayer only 2p a day - or �7 a year - more than if capping takes place.

Lives lost

The fire authority says it would have to lay off as many as 180 staff if the government is successful in reducing its budget by about 10%.

It is also feared the government measures could jeopardise the future of several rural and retained fire stations staffed by part-timers.

Steve Laugher, from the Fire Brigades Union, said: "If this is a game of politics that the fire authority and the government is playing then it's a very very dangerous game.

"People's lives will be lost."

Councillor Richard Udall from Hereford and Worcester Fire Authority, said the government had put them in a worse situation than anticipated.

If we take longer to get to incidents and I have fewer personnel to deal with incidents then we will put more lives at risk. Chief Fire Officer David O'Dwyer

"We were not gambling we were trying to protect the future of the fire service in Hereford and Worcester.

"We were aware that it was a higher budget than the government wanted it to be, but the worse case scenario at the time was 75 redundancies - now the government has put us is a situation considerably worse than that."

Chief Fire Officer David O'Dwyer said the cuts would have "catastrophic effects."

"If we take longer to get to incidents and I have fewer personnel to deal with incidents then we will put more lives at risk.

"The �2m reduction will no doubt affect the way we deliver services."

Herefordshire Council also faces action to reduce council tax bills under the capping measures, which were announced by the local government minister Nick Raynsford on 29 April.

Both the council and the fire authority are expected to appeal against the decision.