CONTROVERSIAL plans to replace some North Yorkshire fire engines with 'tactical response vehicles' - crewed by only two or three firefighters - are being recommended for approval next week.

Members of the North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Authority are being urged to replace wholetime crewed standard appliances with TRVs at stations including Tadcaster, Malton and Ripon.

The results of a public consultation survey, presented to members, reveals widespread hostility to the planned changes among the 1,125 responses, with more than three quarters of respondents against or strongly against.

One person wrote: "The proposal would greatly reduce the capability of crews attending a serious life-threatening road traffic collision or fire, resulting in an increase of risk to firefighters and the public."

Another wrote: "These proposed cuts will cost lives," while another wrote: "I would be disheartened if one of these showed up to save me from a burning fire - I'd know that those men would be expected to wait for backup from the main vehicle." Another respondent wrote: "Only an idiot would consider a van as a viable substitute for a fire tender."

The report to the authority by the chief fire officer and chief executive Nigel Hutchinson says: "Officers undertook analysis of the consultation responses... The conclusions are that the proposed changes are appropriate to the risk in each area."

The Fire Brigades Union, which is strongly opposed to the plans, issued a press release yesterday saying a firefighter who resigned in the wake of a trial of a reduced size fire engine, called a Midi, had spoken out about his feelings of helplessness when attending incidents in a vehicle that wasn’t fit for purpose, and claimed the current proposed TRVs were much worse.

Steve Howley, of the FBU, said that during an interview he conducted with Pete Woolley, which was available at www.no2firecuts.com, Pete had said part time firefighters had pleaded with the service not to introduce the vehicle. “We said we didn't want the midi van and that it was not fit for purpose but as usual our protests were ignored," said Pete.

But the report to next week's meeting dismissed comparisons of the TRV with the “midi", saying technology had since moved on, and the concept was 'proven and operating elsewhere in the UK.'