'Reckless' changes to overnight fire cover could leave communities across Berkshire at risk, the Fire Brigades Union has warned. But fire bosses defend the plans they say will allow for more full-time firefighters to be recruited.

Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service (RBFRS) wants to be able to reduce the number of fire engines staffed with crews immediately available during the night. Fire authority proposals say the reduction will only happen under certain circumstances – and that no wholetime fire station should be left without a fire engine immediately available.

But the firefighters’ trade union the FBU described the plan as ‘reckless’ and warned it could take longer for crews to respond to overnight incidents.

Until recently, 14 fire engines across Berkshire were required to be staffed whole-time overnight – meaning their crews are in the station, ready to go as soon as a call comes in.

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But fire service bosses say this relied on full-time firefighters taking additional shifts on pre-arranged overtime. At the same time, they say there are more part-time, on-call fire fighters available at night.

Under a new policy implemented last week, the service will still aim to keep 14 whole-time fire engines available at night. But if there aren’t enough full-time firefighters available, one of those fire engines can be replaced by an on-call engine elsewhere.

Fire station managers will only be allowed to use pre-arranged overtime when there is greater risk, such as during extreme weather conditions.

RBFRS says this means it can reduce its reliance on overtime – and reinvest the money saved into 10 new full-time firefighter posts. It says it hopes this means that in the long-run there will be more full-time firefighters available at night – meaning it is less likely to have to replace the 14th engine with an on-call one.

It also says that no full-time fire station will be left without a fire engine immediately available.  Plans say that, if needed, one of Slough’s two full-time fire engines would be stood down and replaced by an on-call engine elsewhere.

Deputy chief fire officer Mark Arkwell said: “The anticipated savings go some way to sustainably supporting the cost of the 10 additional firefighting posts, introduced earlier this year. These posts should help reduce the occasions our fire engines are unavailable.”

But the Fire Brigades Union has warned that allowing one of the 14 engines available at night to become on-call risks increasing response times. It says it can take between six and nine minutes for an on-call fire engine to mobilise after a call is received.

The union says this would particularly affect more rural areas of Berkshire where the on-call engines are based, as these engines may then have to cover incidents elsewhere.

FBU Berkshire brigade secretary Steve Collins said his members were ‘ready to take action’ to stop the changes. He said: “Our members are clear, they will not stand by and watch this service degrade the number of immediately available fire engines at night.

“To keep our communities safe we need the service to shelve this reckless plan."