Businesses are to fight the threat of being charged up to £350 for false alarms to the fire service.

West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue is asking the county’s businesses who they think should pay for false calls generated by automatic alarms.

A consultation will start this week among more than 2,000 organisations, following new legislation which allows fire authorities to charge for attending automatic false alarms at business premises.

Charges can be made if the call-out is for a false alarm, the result of incorrectly installed or malfunctioning equipment, or where there is a persistent problem.

The fire service said the charge for a false call would be determined by the consultation, but could be based on the existing special service call rate of £350 excluding VAT per hour per fire appliance.

On average, West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service attends more than 5,000 calls to commercial premises each year as a result of fire alarms – 98.7 per cent of which turn out to be false alarms.

West Yorkshire Assistant Chief Fire Officer Craig McIntosh said: “I hope that businesses will take part in the consultation and give us their honest view.”

Mike Cartwright, policy executive at Bradford Chamber of Commerce, which represents 1,100 businesses, said the body would oppose the charges.

He said: “I think it’s likely that we will oppose the introduction of charging the business itself for a false alarm if that business can show it took reasonable measures to maintain an efficient system.”

Companies wishing to take part in the two month consultation should visit surveymonkey.com/s/6TQQGLC.

e-mail: chris.holland@telegraphandargus.co.uk