Council tax-payers in West Yorkshire will be charged 2p a week extra for their fire service next year.

The Fire Authority has agreed to set a 4.5 per cent increase in the precept for 2000/2001.

But it is still not enough to prevent a £1.2 million budget shortfall - which will be bridged by existing cash reserves and £300,000 of cuts. The savings will come from two per cent efficiency demands on all departments, cuts in repairs and non-essential building maintenance and a 20 per cent reduction in senior training at the national Fire Service College.

At a meeting of the full Fire Authority yesterday, members heard the major reason for the shortfall was a drop in Government funding.

Chairman Councillor Lawrence Conlon explained the Authority's grant aid related to the number of fires it attended and calls it received.

He said: "Our success in fire safety and reducing calls is working against us. We can just about cope with the savings this year, but unless help is forthcoming it could leave us in a very difficult position next year.

"We have been lobbying at the highest level for this to be remedied, but a solution may be another 18-24 months away."

Fire Authority member Councillor Graham Kirkland, said greater effort should be made to spell out the situation to the Home Office.

He told colleagues: "For each call we are preventing we are losing £400. We've cut our calls by 20 per cent so we are shooting ourselves in the foot."

Chief Fire Officer Phil Toase said front line services would not suffer.

The precept increase will mean an annual charge of just under £17 for band A properties, rising to £25.47p for band D, and £50.94 for band H.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.