THE Fire Brigade Union has welcomed a U-turn by the North Yorkshire Fire Authority over the number of firefighters who crew Tactical Response Vehicles.

The authority has voted to have a minimum of four firefighters on four of the TRVs, rather than three. It follows a campaign by the FBU over staffing of TRVs, which are smaller than traditional fire engines.

Crew numbers had been reduced from four to three, leading to claims the public and firefighters were less safe.

Steve Howley, brigade secretary of the FBU in North Yorkshire, said: “I am very pleased the new chairman of the fire authority, [councillor] Andrew Backhouse, listened, considered and acted upon our concerns, as well as those of other authority members, that having just three firefighters on a vehicle was a threat to public safety and to the safety of our firefighters.”

He added: “The authority also took the decision to provide the FBU with a seat on the authority.”

Six TRVs have been introduced to replace six standard fire engines at stations across North Yorkshire.

In September, Cllr Backhouse asked officers to produce a report to consider increasing the crewing of the TRVs at the Malton, Tadcaster, Northallerton and Ripon stations.

This report was presented to the fire authority on Wednesday who made a decision to crew those four TRVs with four firefighters.

A North Yorkshire fire service spokeswoman said: “There are no current plans to change the crewing of TRVs with three at Scarborough and Harrogate, as they have a second appliance immediately available crewed by whole time firefighters.”