Buckinghamshire firefighters demand urgent investment

The rally outside a fire station in Milton Keynes follows Buckinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service being placed under special supervision

Firefighters called for urgent investment in their service during a rally outside a fire authority meeting.

Buckinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service was placed under special supervision in November after a watchdog raised concerns.

The county's Fire Brigades Union (FBU) secretary Chris Wycherley blamed "years of underfunding" as staff gathered at West Ashland fire station.

Deputy chief fire officer Mick Osbourne insisted funding would be boosted.

He said: "It will increase from April when we get our annual budgets, just probably not as much as we'd like to see it increase.

"Funding has increased over the last two years quite significantly."

Chris Wycherley said firefighters in Buckinghamshire had been "frustrated for years in terms of underfunding"

Kieron Thomas, the FBU organiser for Buckinghamshire, warned the service would not have enough resources to deal with major incidents due to a "massive shortage of on-call firefighters".

He said the service had lost 268 staff since 2010.

"We've got fire engines sat in rural communities with nobody to staff them and the people within those communities are unaware their fire engines are not being crewed," he added.

"We need to invest in the future and to protect our firefighters."

Mr Osbourne argued a significant increase of funding over the last two years had allowed the service to recruit more firefighters, calling it "the strongest position we've been in for the last 10 years".

The fire service is now headed by Louise Harrison, who has worked in policing for 31 years.

Her appointment came after His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) told the service to make "urgent improvements", saying it relied too heavily on other counties.

Kieron Thomas said there was a massive shortage of on-call firefighters across Buckinghamshire