The possibility of cuts to any of our emergency services is always an emotive issue and there are some serious concerns about the impact of changes proposed for the West Yorkshire Fire Brigade.

There is little doubt that under current financial circumstances, every penny has to be watched and any small alteration that will help with that should be considered.

But it is difficult to accept that the loss of more than 100 firefighting posts as part of the force’s £4m planned savings will not have some significant impact on the level of service that can be provided.

What is particularly galling about all of this is the level of waste that the Fire Service has witnessed from central government as a result of the abandoned plans for so-called super call centres. The failed project has cost the taxpayer nationally half a billion pounds, and the call centre that was built and never used for this region in Wakefield is alone still costing the public purse more than £1.2m a year in rent.

While the West Yorkshire fire authority is in no way culpable for that particular white elephant, it does make any cuts a particularly hard pill to swallow.

The Fire Brigade Union’s description of the plans to replace ten fire stations in the county with five new stations as a ‘bonfire of the fire service’ is undoubtedly over-emotive and not particularly helpful.

However, there are concerns within the communities that will be affected about issues like the impact on response times with crews and appliances spread more thinly.

It is to be hoped that the authority looks very closely at all of these factors and listens to all representations before it makes its final and, hopefully, considered decision next month.