ANGRY scenes erupted as Conservative councillors approved sweeping cuts to a fire brigade, despite overwhelming public opposition and firefighters' warnings that the move would cost lives.

A North Yorkshire Fire Authority meeting heard fire stations at Northallerton, Ripon, Harrogate, Malton, Scarborough and Tadcaster should have a 24-hour crewed fire engine replaced by a smaller tactical response vehicle as the number of incidents firefighters attended had dropped.

York Press:

Protestors outside the meeting at Easingwold

Union officials said the plans would lead to 43 frontline staff being axed, but chief fire officer Nigel Hutchinson told the meeting that the scheme - which would see it save £1.5m from its annual £30m budget - would not expose the service's firefighters or 800,000 residents to greater risk.

Ahead of the meeting at the service's base in Easingwold, scores of firefighters staged a protest at which Fire Brigades Union general secretary Matt Wrack said: "These proposals turn their back on half a century about what a fire service has to do.

"All our procedures are built on experience of previous incidents and unfortunately often from tragedies."

Residents, firefighters and a traders' leader told the authority's members they believed the cuts were a step too far, particularly as the county was facing an increased risks from flooding incidents due to global warming, the prospect of hundreds of fracking wells and terror attacks.

York Press:

FBU leader Steve Howley addresses the crowd

North Yorkshire Fire Brigades Union secretary Steve Howley told the meeting: "Fire deaths are at an all-time high this year in North Yorkshire and the number of calls are not reducing as management would have you believe."

Mr Hutchinson dismissed the union's claims that the tactical response vehicles would lessen the ability to respond to major incidents.

He said 34 per cent fewer incidents over the past five years meant the brigade's 46 fire engines did not all need to be available immediately.

Fire service leaders said its preventative work had led to incidents in Northallerton falling from 296 in 2010 to 230 last year.

County councillor Chris Metcalfe said while a public consultation exercise had shown about 80 per cent of respondents were opposed to the changes, there had been a "campaign of misinformation which had exploited people's fears".

Members were met with derision from the packed meeting room when they voted ten to six in favour of the proposals.

Mr Howley said: "This was democracy at its worst, half of the fire authority members didn't even know what they voted on."