A plan to replace fire station officers with non-uniformed inspectors has been met with outrage by union officials.

West Yorkshire Fire Authority's personnel and training committee will meet tomorrow to consider the proposals.

But members of the Fire Brigades' Union are unhappy with the recommendation, saying a loss of uniformed fire chiefs is a worrying trend.

The improvement plan, which has arisen from the Best Value Review of the Legislative Fire Safety service, proposes changes which, it claims, will increase staffing and productivity.

Over a five-year period, five station officer posts will be removed and replaced with a mixture of sub-officers, leading firefighters and non-uniformed posts.

Assistant Chief Fire Officer David Monks said: "By changing the rank structure and employing some non-uniformed inspectors the time available for carrying out fire safety inspections could be increased by 20 per cent."

But Sean Cahill, West Yorkshire FBU secretary, said: "Officers normally bring knowledge and experience to the force but the introduction of non-uniformed inspectors is an extremely worrying development from our point of view."

The plan is that the introduction of non-uniformed inspectors could provide opportunities for recruitment for under-represented groups and that all non-uniformed staff would have to have appropriate qualifications.

But Mr Cahill said: "The public pay for a fire service and for their safety inspectors to give professional advice they have gained from good training.

"We think this is detrimental to the public because at the present time we have people who are extremely qualified and I am concerned this will no longer be the case."