THE process of recruiting 175 new firefighters across West Yorkshire will formally begin at the end of this month.

West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service (WYFRS) is to halt a recruitment freeze stretching back to 2009 to boost an ageing workforce which has been reduced by about 400 firefighters over the past five years.

While the Fire Brigades Union has welcomed the decision, it warned that the brigade’s numbers will still fall “well short”.

The details of the recruitment drive are set to be discussed by West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Authority's human resources committee on Friday.

Members have previously been told that without new recruits, the number of whole-time firefighters would drop from 1,010 now to 744 by the end of March 2020, with no firefighters under the age of 30.

West Yorkshire Chief Fire Officer Simon Pilling has recommended that the firefighter establishment should not fall below 900 staff.

The report to go before the committee states: “The authority’s workforce planning forecasts indicate the need to recruit some 175 firefighters over the next three years.

“The process is likely to run on an annual basis supplying three to four training courses of approximately 24 trainees over a minimum of three years to maintain the whole-time firefighter establishment at 900.”

The recruitment drive will formally start on January 31, with the application window open from March 1 to April 9.

The recruits will be trained internally rather than using an external provider, reducing costs from £840,000 to £195,000, and the first batch of 24 new firefighters are set to enter active service in April next year.

David Williams, West Yorkshire secretary of the FBU, said: “We obviously welcome whole-time recruitment, it’s something we have been screaming for since 2010.

"The job is much more demanding now, and if you add to that an ageing workforce where morale is not at its highest due to cuts, it creates a toxic mix, so this should create a buzz.

“Numbers-wise, we are still well short. It is an open secret that the fire chief feels we can manage with 900 whole-time firefighters, which is far too low.

“We want as many people as possible to get their applications in so we can pass our skills and knowledge on to the next generation."

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