A new raft of job losses among support staff at West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service is set to bring the total since 2010 to more than 100.

A staffing review – which will include a number of compulsory redundancies – is set to save the service £2.5million a year. The total number of jobs lost since 2010 represents a third of the support staff workforce.

Fifty members of staff, who have been granted voluntary severance or retirement, will leave in October. Those without a job in the new structure will face compulsory redundancy in March, bringing the total latest reduction in staff to 83.

Assistant Chief Fire Officer Martyn Redfearn said the authority was struggling with unpalatable decisions after cuts in central government grant.

“We shall be slimmer and more efficient as a result of these latest changes with more work moved onto the operational staff and focusing on the most important areas,” he said.

He said with a potential loss of a further £12million in central funding between now and 2015, he could not rule out more job losses among support staff.

David Spink, chief steward for the West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service at Unison, said jobs were going in administration, transport maintenance and communications, and among senior management staff.

He said community fire safety workers, who carry out home fire safety checks, were being lost, leaving operational staff to pick up the slack. “It’s spreading everything very thinly to be honest,” he said.

“Obviously the number of posts lost is very disappointing. I suppose the only silver lining to the cloud is quite a few of the losses are for people that have been able to take early retirement.”

He said the union was disappointed not to have been given assurance that there would be no further cuts.

David Williams, acting brigade secretary for the Fire Brigades Union in West Yorkshire, said any cut in the service was a “backward step”.

He said: “The work needs to be done and will be done.

“I cannot see how we will be more efficient if we have got fewer staff. it just doesn’t make any sense at all.”

e-mail: tanya.orourke @telegraphandargus.co.uk