COUNCIL taxpayers will have to find less than 2p a week extra to pay for their fire and rescue service next year.
Councillors agreed a recordlow precept rise of 2% for 2010/11, an extra £1.03 a year for Band D households, to fund their £93.7m budget. But more cuts could be on the way.
Kirklees councillor David Ridgeway, chairman of the Fire Authority, said: “Whilst our prime concern is always to maintain essential fire cover and protect firefighter safety we can’t ignore the current financial climate and the strain this increasingly places on domestic purse strings.
“Fortunately, we have been able to find sustainable staff savings of some £600,000 over the past year to help ease budget pressures and pay for critical investments in areas like water rescue and urban search and rescue training.”
But he warned any squeeze on public sector expenditure could mean the service having to make cuts of between £11m and £20m by 2013/14.
Chief Fire Officer Simon Pilling admitted that the financial forecasts were challenging.
But he insisted that work was already underway to identify the new technology, equipment and ways of working necessary to provide services to high standards in different ways.
“We exist to protect life and property and my staff have never shirked from that key responsibility.
“Efficiency and effectiveness have always been our hallmarks.”
