THE leader of the Fire Brigade's Union in North Yorkshire has spoken out against the Home Secretary's claims about the service.

Theresa May called for a radical reform of the fire service in a speech last week, which she said "has succeeded in spite of the framework it operates in, not because of it", and "in the last 10 years, the overall size of the fire workforce has not changed significantly despite the number of incidents attended falling by 42 per cent".

Steve Howley, FBU Brigade secretary, said while he agreed with the Home Secretary's call for an independent inspectorate, he did not believe it should be the responsibility of the Police and Crime Commissioner, and questioned other areas of her speech.

Mr Howley said: "It's absolutely wrong to suggest the Fire Service hasn't changed; it's gone through constant change since 2003.

"Since 2010, we have lost more than 7,000 frontline full time firefighters in the UK, and through that same period, the changes introduced have seen response times increase to a 20 year high and fire deaths in the last 12 months have jumped by 21 per cent nationally and increased in North Yorkshire as well. While fires have reduced, a number of other incident are increasing such as flooding, as seen in York, road accidents and river rescues."

Mr Howley also questioned the Home Secretary's plan to introduce legislation allowing Police and Crime Commissioners to take more control of fire services with public backing.

He said: "I've campaigned against the Fire Authority for a period of time, but still believe it's the most democratic way of running the fire service. It's very little overall cost and under the PCC, we don't know where we would be.

"We have yet to see any detail of how it would benefit the frontline. We can collaborate with back office functions, transport departments and buildings now; we can do it now. That doesn't need legislation. That would potentially save money so yes, let's look at areas where we can save money, but a full takeover working as a branch of police service isn't what's best for the public for the service or for the police service."