Warning over more fire service cuts as 20 jobs go

About 20 jobs have been cut from Hereford & Worcester Fire and Rescue Service - with its top boss warning that more savings still have to be made.

Jonathon Pryce, the chief fire officer, said about £1.8m would need to taken out of the budget over the next three years unless the government changed tack on funding cuts.

He warned that cuts to frontline services were now a "high likelihood", and he was lobbying MPs to try and turn the situation around.

The government said it was working "closely with fire and rescue services" to give them "the resources they need".

The fire service has already saved £1.2m in the current financial year, mainly by making redundancies.

But Pryce said the government's new three-year funding settlement meant another £1.2m would have to be saved next year, rising to £1.8m by 2029.

"I've already had to make £1.2m of cuts from non-frontline assets and people - it would be highly unlikely that I could take another £1.8m out of this organisation without making any changes to the frontline," he said.

"And that could be in prevention, protection or response."

He added that he was "lobbying the government and the fire minister" to try and force a change, with the support of local MPs.

"We're lobbying them hard to try and get them to change their minds on it," he said.

"Really it's a very small thing they need to do, to bring us to a point where we don't have to make these reductions.

"I'm not asking for more money - I'm just asking them to not take away the money that I've got, and that's what's happened this year."

The overall fire service budget is about £46m, with about 750 posts on the payroll.

It has come under severe pressure from inflation and the demand on services, with a 160% rise in outdoor fires across Worcestershire over the last year, mainly caused by the drought-like conditions during last spring and summer.

A government spokesperson said "standalone fire and rescue authorities" had received an increase of almost £70m this year "to support their services and tireless work".

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government added: "We continue to work closely with fire and rescue services to ensure they have the resources they need."

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