Merseyside Fire and Rescue Authority has set out its strategy for lobbying the Government to obtain a better funding settlement for next year.

It comes in the face of cuts in central government funding since 2010, which has seen MFRA forced to significantly reduce both staff numbers and the number of fire engines.

This has resulted in the merger of fire stations in an effort to reduce costs, with an additional six stations also having to change duty systems as reductions in staff have meant 24-hour cover at every station is no longer affordable.

Cllr Les Byrom, chairman of the suthority, said: "We have had enough, over the 2010/11 to 2019/20 period, MFRA will have suffered a 50% reduction in the total grant it receives from the Government.

"As a consequence, over the same time period, MFRA's total revenue budget will reduce from £73.6m to £59.9m. The Government needs to think again.

“We are determined to ensure that we can maintain a level of operational response that meets the needs of the Merseyside community but we cannot do this if our funding continues to be cut.

"Our staff work incredibly hard but the number of stations, engines and firefighters have all been cut drastically, thereby increasing the risk to the communities that the service works so hard to protect.”

The plan proposed by Cllr Byrom awas unanimously agreed by the authority last Thursday.

The report includes a specific motion asking councils to formally endorse their support for MFRA and its lobby on Government.

MFRA has experienced the most severe budget reductions in the whole country.

As a result of cuts, in the decade between 2010 and 2020, there will have been a reduction in the number of immediately available fire engines from 42 to 24.

The number of firefighters will have reduced from 927 to 620 and support and control staff will have reduced from 507 to 309. There will have also been a 15% cut in the number of stations, from 26 to 22.

MFRA is demanding assurances that, as an absolute minimum Government commit to ensuring that there will be no further grant reductions applied.

The lobbying submission presented to Government will also consider the issue of improving firefighters' pay, which it recognises has fallen behind the levels of other public and private sector workers, a view shared by the Fire Brigades Union and Fire Officers Association.