TRYING to hold the pay of public servants below inflation is one thing.

Awarding North Yorkshire's fire service a measly one per cent budget increase - effectively a cut - is another.

Firefighters save lives, often putting their own lives at risk in the process.

It is the major fires - such as the Somerfields blaze in Selby last year - that make headlines.

But firefighters are also among the first people at the scene of major road accidents.

They often save victims' lives by cutting them free from the wreckage so they can get proper treatment.

A fire service, in other words, is far too important to be run on a shoestring.

Try telling the Government that.

The North Yorkshire service has already been subjected to years of savings.

Now it faces yet more cuts - while some fire services elsewhere are getting rises of as much as 8.5 per cent.

Fire service leaders admit they are baffled. When a delegation visited London earlier this month, Minister Ian Wright appeared to have listened.

Clearly he did not. And he has given no reason for swinging the axe in North Yorkshire, while giving more money to other areas.

The situation could get worse, with budget increases of 0.5 per cent intimated for the next two years.

The fire service is launching a campaign to get the cuts reversed. And it is urging ordinary people to write to their MP and even start petitions.

We back the campaign all the way. These cuts are dangerous and unfair.

We proved, through our Fund The Force campaign to get a better deal for North Yorkshire Police, that public pressure can help.

So we would urge everyone to do their bit. Now is the time for all hands to go to the pumps.