THE fire service in West Yorkshire is asking for a rise in its funding from taxpayers.
West Yorkshire chief fire officer Simon Pilling has Government approval to seek a precept increase of up to £5 more from all taxpayers.
If backed it will mean all Huddersfield taxpayers face a 10p weekly rise in funding to the fire service from April.
It will be on top of the proposed 1.6% Council Tax rise and follows a freeze in precept for the past two years.
The fire chief said: “The authority faces a budget deficit of £5.9m in the current financial year which is forecast to increase to £27m by 2017-18.
“Following two extensive consultation exercises the authority has approved wide-ranging changes to the service that will meet significant revenue shortfalls, but we will have no choice but to consider further efficiencies if funding streams are frozen for a third year.”
The fire authority will be asked to approve or reject the proposed annual budget next month.
West Yorkshire is one of eight fire authorities that have been granted flexibility by central government to increase the precept by up to £5 in 2013-14.
Currently the average cost to individual council taxpayers remains less than £1 a week – the second lowest precept in the country – at £52.41 a year.
The fire service says it balanced its books last year by non-recruitment and accepting a one-off central government grant in lieu of a precept rise, amounting to £1m.
The fire authority’s finance and resources committee yesterday backed a spend of £1,356.70 for three of its staff to visit La Rochelle in France.
It is part of work to identify the required development of the command and control system and the observation exercise will look at a system not currently used in the UK.
The committee report says: “It is anticipated that there may be a requirement for up to three further visits to France during the project timescale for a similar duration and cost.”
South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service has already received approval for a visit to La Rochelle for its relevant personnel to observe the new system.
