Union members have criticised Avon Fire & Rescue Service (AFRS) chiefs for deciding to axe four full-time firefighters and change some others’ duties to help balance the books.

It comes as councillors on the fire authority approved the maximum-allowed £5 precept increase for Band D properties, a rise of nearly six per cent, double that of last year – from April.

But although AFRS senior leaders have identified ways to save £500,000 in 2025/26, increased costs and lower funding mean they will have to find another £1.3million of cuts in the next financial year.

Chief Fire Officer Simon Shilton warned this was “just the tip of the iceberg” as the service faced a £5.5million deficit in four years.

The four firefighters to be lost will not involve redundancies but are roles that will not be replaced when frontline staff leave the service, an Avon Fire Authority (AFA) meeting was told.

Fire Brigades Union (FBU) Avon branch secretary Amanda Mills told councillors on Friday, February 14: “The reduction of four grey-book posts, firefighter positions, is unacceptable.

“FBU members are resolute, we will always fight for properly crewed appliances, maintaining a minimum of five firefighters per appliance to ensure the safety of both our members and members of the public.”

Last March, the AFA agreed to delay by a year proposals to cut 40 firefighters by reducing crewing numbers from five to four.

Those plans were not revived in a list of “service efficiencies” put forward by AFRS bosses to the committee on Friday to meet a legal requirement of balancing the budget for the next 12 months.

But the annual financial plans will come back to members next month for approval, with more details expected on how the huge deficit could be bridged.

Among seven proposals already agreed by the service’s leaders over the last few weeks to save £500,000, day-duty staff, trained firefighters in non-operational roles such as training or fire safety – would be required to work one frontline shift per month to plug some of the gap in the four lost firefighters.

This would also reduce the need for overtime costs to cover crewing shortages.

Some operational staff in temporary day-duty roles would be redeployed back into their main duties responding to emergencies.

A report to the AFA said: “For clarity, there will be no reduction in fire appliance and special appliance (such as turn table ladders) availability, or closure of fire stations.

“There will also be no change in how appliances are crewed.

“This work package therefore would not result in redundancies.

“Reducing the wholetime establishment by four grey-book posts whilst maintaining appliance availability is far less impactful than other potential cost-saving measures.

“Therefore, this work package represents a more sustainable way to achieve cost savings without compromising service delivery.”

But Ms Mills said: “While presented as an efficiency measure, this approach has not made a consideration of the vital work being carried out by these departments.

“It places an additional burden on day-duty staff.”

She said these employees were carrying out important work to address a host of issues highlighted by government inspectors in a damning report in November 2023.

Ms Mills said: “This is not a sustainable solution and will ultimately impact the service we provide, leading to overwork, reduced productivity and potentially compromised training and incident response effectiveness.”

Another cost-cutting measure will change the way fire engines are repositioned across the area to ensure balanced emergency cover.

The report said these “standby movements” involved 2,500 moves a year and cost £100,000 but that by using data better it would save half of this while “maintaining effective emergency response cover”.

But Ms Mills said: “Leaving a wholetime station with no available appliances even temporarily can have severe consequences for response times, particularly in areas of identified risks.”

Responding to the FBU’s concerns, CFO Shilton said: “To do nothing is not an option.

“Likewise, to balance the budget based on luck, ifs, buts and maybes, without prudent assumptions made by financial planning, would only serve to neglect my duties as the head of paid service.

“Our budget assumptions are prudent and realistic to minimise and respond to future risks in a volatile and uncertain financial picture.

“It remains that while future years are still uncertain, our deficit for 2025/26 and beyond are real and must be addressed in an inventive and efficient way.

“We have to deliver whatever is reasonable in a sustainable way to minimise the impact on service delivery and on firefighter safety.”

He said that without increasing the Band D precept by £5, “even deeper and cross-cutting efficiencies will be more severe”.

The chief said: “Change and efficiencies are always very emotive and impactful.

“However, the options I and the leadership team have chosen are reasonable and proportionate.”

The £5 hike takes AFRS’s part of the council tax for average band bills from £85.43 to £90.43 from April.

Councillors rejected an alternative, smaller precept rise option of £2.99 per cent , an increase of £2.55 to £87.98 – because it would have meant needing to find almost £1million more cuts on top of the £1.3million extra that the service needs to find in 2025/26.

It would have also taken the total deficit in four years from £5.5million to £6.6million.

But the amount of savings needed next year is expected to be even higher because confirmation from the government about the amount it would receive in its annual grant was only received the afternoon before the meeting and was worse than anticipated.

AFA member and Bath & North East Somerset Cllr Paul May (Lib Dem, Publow with Whitchurch) said: “It’s clear that we’re going to have to agree to the £5 precept.

“We would be daft not to do that.

“If we don’t raise it at that level, next year we have to make even more savings.”

AFA interim chairman and Bristol city Cllr Paul Goggin (Labour, Hartcliffe & Withywood) said: “Nobody likes increased taxes.

“However, for a Band D property it works out at less than 10p a week, and for the services AFRS provides, that’s not a bad deal.”