Residents in the district will be expected to fork out 9.5 per cent more next year to pay for the fire and rescue service in West Yorkshire.

After freezing its precept for two years running, the service has been granted special dispensation to increase its precept by up to £5 per household per year for band D properties in 2013/14.

It still leaves West Yorkshire as the lowest-cost fire and rescue service in the region and remains one of the lowest in the country.

It will mean the brigade is able to reshape fire cover across the county and invest more in fire safety education for the most vulnerable.

Councillor Mehboob Khan, chairman of West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Authority, said: “The national funding formula and grant cuts have been so damaging to West Yorkshire that this precept increase, although small, will go a long way to helping the authority balance its books.”