FIREFIGHTERS declared a motion of no confidence in Surrey County Council’s fire authorit, saying that proposed budget cuts will put the public and firefighters at risk.

The motion, passed by members of the Fire Brigades Union (FBU), warns the number of firefighters working in Surrey will plummet further if £10 million is cut from the fire service budget as approved by the county council.

In 2010, Surrey Fire and Rescue Service employed 378 firefighters. However, this number has since fallen to 252 and the FBU says by 2022 there will be just 117 whole-time firefighters responding to emergencies across the county.

This would represent a 69 per cent drop in firefighter posts over 12 years and, of all England’s fire and rescue services, Surrey now has the lowest number of staff per head county of population.

Comparatively, Farnham Fire Station currently employs 20 full-time crew members, down from 30 in 2010 - a 33 per cent drop.

Denying lives could be put at risk, Surrey Fire and Rescue said it was confident it could still provide an “effective and efficient” service.

But the FBU added the cuts in whole-time firefighter posts have already resulted in a 66 per cent fall in the number of Fire Protection Audits carried out to ensure properties comply with fire safety regulations.

In addition, it said, the number of firefighters in a crew had been reduced from five to four, meaning that if firefighters have to perform rescues from a burning building, they would need to wait for a backup crew as a minimum of five firefighters are needed.

Richard Jones, secretary of the FBU in the south east, said: “These budget cuts are completely unacceptable and show, once again, how little regard the fire authority has for the safety of the public.

“If these cuts go ahead, Surrey Fire and Rescue Service will no longer be able to perform its duty effectively. It will take firefighters longer to arrive at emergencies and they will have to wait for backup crews if they need to enter a burning building. This will lead to avoidable deaths.

“These cuts will leave the public with nothing more than a false sense of security.”

The FBU’s motion demands that the Surrey fire authority either halts all planned cuts to Surrey Fire and Rescue Service, reinstates a “fit for purpose” budget in agreement with the FBU to restore an adequate level of safety for the public and fire fighters in Surrey, or relinquishes its governance of the fire service.

It continued: “The fire authority is in a race to the bottom, which we believe the people of Surrey would not want to compete in and it’s certainly not one fire fighters will tolerate.

“Fire authority members need to get their heads out of the financial spreadsheets and into the real world, where real people live or die as a result of ill thought out decisions.”

Responding, a Surrey Fire and Rescue Service spokesman said: “The safety of Surrey residents is paramount in all decisions that are made and, despite the huge financial pressures we face due to the rising need for services such as social care for children and adults and school places, we’re confident we’ll still be able to provide an effective and efficient fire and rescue service to keep them safe.

“The demands on the fire service are changing and we’re being called to about half the number of fires we were a decade ago – our focus is on making the best use of our resources to put the service on a solid financial footing as well as equipping our firefighters for the 21st century.”

The motion comes after Labour county councillor Robert Evans called for all planned cuts to the fire service in Surrey to be halted in the wake of the Grenfell Tower tragedy, as reported in last week’s Herald.

• The Police and Crime Commissioner for Surrey, David Munro, also called on the government to help protect local police services this week, saying resources taken away from county forces could pose a danger to neighbourhood policing in areas like Surrey.

The former Farnham councillor said forces, including Surrey Police, were “running at their limit” and any extra strain on budgets resulting from the need to provide additional funding for national programmes such as counter terrorism would hit local policing hard.

He has set out his concerns to the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners (APCC) who are collating evidence from PCC offices across the country on the current demand in their forces for a submission to the Joint Spending Review.

He highlighted that previously when demand was increasing in areas such as domestic abuse, child sexual exploitation, historic sexual offences and online crime - acquisitive crime was showing a reducing trend.

However, in recent months offences such as burglary and vehicle crime have increased meaning Surrey Police has had to focus on improving performance in those areas whilst maintaining momentum on public protection work.

This is in addition to also servicing other areas of high demand on local resources such as missing people, repeat anti-social behaviour and dealing with people with mental health issues.

Mr Munro said: “Local forces are currently coping but they are running at the limit of their capabilities and we are no different here in Surrey. I am concerned that any further squeezes to our budget will affect the level of service we can provide to our residents, particularly in neighbourhood policing.

“The government needs to take heed of the pressures police forces are facing at the moment.

“Of course tackling the threat of terrorism is an absolute priority, particularly in light of the awful recent attacks we have witnessed. But that needs to complement our policing efforts and not be at the expense of local policing.”