Warwickshire Fire Service jobs will go in cuts

Warwickshire Fire Service currently has about 230 full time firefighters

About 30 firefighter jobs are to go in Warwickshire as the fire service tries to save £2.4m over the next four years.

Five control room staff will also be made redundant, the service said. It said jobs would be lost by not replacing staff that retire or leave.

As part of the savings plan two new response locations will be set up in Ryton-on-Dunsmore and Gaydon.

These new centres will help achieve a target of halving rural response times to 10 minutes, the fire service said.

It said the cuts were in response to reductions in its annual budget funding from £20m to about £18m by 2018.

'High demand'

Under the plans the number of full time firefighters would fall to about 200, with 114 retained firefighters, it said.

Les Caborn, portfolio holder for community safety at Warwickshire County Council, said the new response locations would be at the police training college in Ryton-on-Dunsmore and at Jaguar Land Rover in Gaydon.

A part-time crew will also be set up in Rugby, he said.

"With the reorganised service we're planning we're looking more closely at how we use our officers, where they're based and the equipment we provide them with," Mr Caborn said.

"We are placing our resources to best respond to those areas of high demand."

A 12 week public consultation into the plans has started.