A CONSULTATION on plans to cut £2.4 million from the West Yorkshire Fire Service budget will run until November.

At a meeting of the West Yorkshire Fire Authority yesterday, members agreed to start a consultation on plans to "flatten management structures" across the force to reduce costs.

The plans would include reducing the number of watch managers based at fire stations with one fire engine.

Watch managers would also be given their own vehicle so they would not have to rely on being transported by fire engines to attend incidents.

The service said the changes were needed to "balance budgets" by 2020 members of the authority were told.

The authority heard that despite the planned savings, there may be additional costs created by the new set up.

Staff will now be consulted on the proposed changes until November 16.