Hypocrites!

Graeme Hicks, who represents the Redruth south ward, blamed the Liberal Democrat-run council for the fire brigade's current problems.

"This is another direct result of the mismanagement of Corn-wall's affairs by the Lib Dems," he told the Packet. "They can't afford to maintain an adequate fire service, yet they are prepared to spend hundreds of thousands of pounds of our money promoting themselves in the production of a monthly community newspaper. If this doesn't stink of hypocrisy I don't know what does."

Camborne firefighters packed into a special committee meeting at County Hall last week to show their opposition to the proposals.

Over 40 firefighters turned up to the meeting in Truro last Thursday after it was revealed that the county council was to consider closing Camborne and Falmouth stations at night because of a lack of cash. The two stations are the only two remaining 24-hour stations in the county.

Cornwall Fire Brigade's chief officer Matt Littmoden told councillors that with the amount of money he was due to get from the council this year he could not afford to keep full-time firefighters at either Camborne or Falmouth 24-hours a day.

"We reach a point where we cannot maintain crewing levels," said Mr Littmoden. "What I am doing is putting these proposals in front of the public and authorities so you can get the whole picture. I cannot see that the budget is going to be that much different from the past three years and I think it would be wrong for me to come along now with one proposal and another proposal in a couple of year's time. I'm putting it all out in front of you now so you can see where we are going."

He added: "We have overspent the budget for a number of years and if we don't get out of these money problems we will be back at this point in a year."

Mr Littmoden said the reduction in full time fire crews would be maintained by natural wastage - firefighters retiring and not being replaced. There was already a freeze on recruiting full-time firefighters, he said.

The special committee approved a 12-week consultation process, involving members of staff, key stakeholders and members of the public.

The fireworkers' union, the FBU, has already expressed concern at the proposals because they say calling night staff out from home would increase the time taken to reach fire scenes by a minimum of four minutes.

Committee member Coun Ken Yeo said: "In 2005-2006 budget problems required the brigade to freeze the recruitment of whole-time firefighters. The forecast budget for 2007-2008 and beyond will not enable us to lift this freeze. As a result the brigade has been forced to put forward some difficult recommendations to ensure it can stay within the funding it has been allocated."

The formal consultation process will begin on Monday, January 15, and will end on Tuesday, April 10. The full executive of the county council will make a final decision on June 19.