THE Fire Brigades Union (FBU) says strategic long-term invest-ment is desperately needed to combat Dorset’s fire service “funding crisis.”

Regional FBU leaders issued their statement as the public consultation on merging Dorset Fire Authority with Wiltshire and Swindon came to an end on Monday.

This merger proposal emerged after government funding was reduced, with the resulting budget deficits threatening to have an impact on frontline services.

The consultation, which ran separately in both counties, put forward a number of key options – one of which included the merger.

Responding to the end of the consultation, Dorset FBU brigade secretary Karen Adams said: “These are desperate times for DFRS.”

She added: “Funding cuts are already having a serious impact on our service, with firefighters expected to work in their own time, and on low pay rates, just to keep fire engines on the run and support community safety events. But enough is enough – no matter the outcome of the consultation we are demanding long term, strategic investment in our service. We require, and the public deserve, a properly financed, locally accountable fire and rescue service, no matter which name it bears.”

Dorset Fire Authority is set to consider the consultation findings at a meeting which will take place on November 4.

For the merger to become a reality, an official combination order must be presented to the Department for Communities and Local Government’s fire minister, Penny Mordaunt, for approval.

FBU South West regional secretary Trevor French said: “Politically-driven cuts have created a financial crisis in our service so dangerous that in a recent TV interview the Wiltshire chief fire officer told a reporter that the brigade was in danger of going bust.”