A DEPUTATION will travel to London in the new year to lobby ministers for more money for North Yorkshire's fire and rescue service.

The county's chief fire officer, Nigel Hutchinson, and Councillor John Fort, chairman of the fire authority, will visit local government ministers on January 8.

The move follows warnings from the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) that a one per cent increase for North Yorkshire in next year's Government settlement will stretch resources too thinly and could cost lives.

The county service had expected an increase of 2.5 per cent in Government funding next year, but was told earlier this month that it would receive only one per cent - £127,000 on its current budget of £29.2m.

Coun Fort said the settlement meant a loss of £300,000 for the service - the equivalent of ten firefighters.

"All we were wanting was a fair crack of the whip, but we feel we have been penalised because we were judged as an excellent service,"

he said.

"Some brigades seem to have done very well out of the settlement, and the amount of money that has gone out nationally seems very good, but it has been done in a less than equal way."

The FBU is touring the county to drum up support for its campaign for an improved settlement.

Ian Watkins, FBU branch secretary, backed the delegation by Coun Fort and Mr Hutchinson, but said: "We just hope it is not too little too late.

"We have been telling them (management) to do this for some considerable time."

There are concerns about staffing levels and the proposed use of community safety vehicles - vans with two firefighters and limited equipment - which the union fears will eventually replace fully-manned and equipped fire engines.

Mr Watkins said that a change in the way in which deaths in fires were recorded had made the county look safer than it really was, which had led to a lower cash settlement.

Richmond Town Council has formally backed the FBU campaign and a public meeting to discuss fire cover in the area will be held in Richmond Town Hall, at 7pm, on January 24.