EMErgency cover across Wharfedale looked likely to be dealt another blow this week as local ambulance crews voted to take a leaf out of the firefighters' book by going on strike.

Their proposed one-day overtime ban may fall short of a full walkout but it could lead to emergency response times almost doubling in some cases, rising from eight to ten minutes to 15 or 20 minutes.

Coming as it does during an eight-day firefighters' strike, the possible action has reinforced the growing fear that we are facing a second "Winter of Discontent" - a re-run of the crippling series of national council workers' strikes of 1979.

West Yorkshire Metropolitan Ambulance Service (WYMAS) employees, including control staff who liaIse with the paramedics after receiving 999 calls, joined other UNISON and Transport and General Workers Union (T&G) members last week by voting overwhelmingly to refuse to work beyond their shifts.

Just like the firefighters, the point of the proposed action, which the unions warned could be repeated in the run-up to Christmas and over the busy New Year period if no agreement was reached, was to win an improved pay deal.

The T&G and UNISON, also echoing the claims of The Fire Brigades' Union (FBU), say the strike option was forced upon them because of how badly their members' pay and conditions have fallen behind similar professions.

The T&G's regional industrial organiser for the Bradford District, Phil Brown, said: "For three years, ambulance workers have been told that their terms and conditions will be brought up to a nationally recommended level yet the employer's offer falls well short.

"The unions have decided not to exercise their right for an all-out strike this time in an effort to cause minimum disruption to the public and to encourage the employer to come to the negotiating table to reach a fair settlement."

Most people agree that paramedics and firefighters, along with the police, do a good and often dangerous job for a financial reward which falls far below many other professions.

But the question of whether emergency service employees should ever be allowed to strike when the action will always, by necessity, endanger lives, is more controversial.

The firefighters' action has seen fire cover for the Ilkley area reduced to two old Green Goddesses based in Keighley, while a paramedics' strike would mean ambulances at Menston wouldn't be able to get to where they were needed as quickly.

And any delays in providing emergency medical treatment, as Ilkley campaigners like Rotary Club member and Heartstart Ilkley founder Philip Chinque have consistently pointed out, can cost lives.

Critics of the firefighters have already claimed that several deaths in house blazes may have been avoided if trained crews, rather than drafted in soldiers using ageing machines, had attended.

The Prime Minister Tony Blair has branded their strike "irresponsible, unjustified and wrong". Meanwhile, Burley-in-Wharfedale and Menston MP Chris Leslie, who is the Fire Safety Minister, has slated the 40 per cent increase being demanded by the FBU as "unreasonable and unrealistic".

But firefighters say they are only trying to win a fair deal, and many, like Ilkley's leading fireman Alex Watson, are quick to point out that they have always been willing to break the picket line and respond to "life threatening" situations.

FBU member Mr Watson told the Gazette that he and his colleagues would like "nothing better" for the dispute to be resolved satisfactorily so they could go back to work - and the same message is coming from the health unions.

I asked Ilkley Parish Council chairman Mike Gibbons if he had any sympathy with their positions.

He said: "Without knowing the full facts of the disputes, it is difficult to make a deeply meaningful comment, but I am dismayed that these things cannot be sorted out by negotiation prior to the public being yet again threatened with disadvantage.

"We hear regularly that it is not the intention of the people going on strike to create problems for the public but it always seems to be at the busiest times. "Talking and negotiating is always the best outcome for situations like this.

" I think those who remember the Winter of Discontent will have concerns that there are the beginnings of what may be seen as parallels. I would hope, however, that these are isolated instances which will be resolved as soon as possible to the mutual advantage of both parties."

Leeds City councillor for Otley and Wharfedale and Otley Town Councillor Graham Kirkland said the two disputes were a sign of worrying times.

Coun Kirkland, a member of the West Yorkshire Fire Executive, said: "It certainly isn't a contented winter and I am concerned that we have had two emergency services without full cover, especially when in both cases their problems could be solved by proper discussions.

"There needs to be a good look at the emergency services and it needs to take the views of everybody concerned - that includes customers like you or me who might have a heart attack or a house fire one day. "

l At the time of going to press, ACAS initiated negotiations between WYMAS and the unions had resulted in a 48-hour 'deferral' of strike action planned by paramedics.