IT was billed as a public consultation exercise to explain to Eastleigh people what changes were being proposed at the town's fire station.

Fire chiefs also stressed the meeting at Hampshire Fire and Rescue's Headquarters was a good opportunity to "dispel some of the speculation and allegations" that had arisen through a planned shake-up of fire cover in the county.

However, this failed to impress the majority of the 50-strong audience who were wary of moves to transfer full- time firefighters from Eastleigh to improve fire cover in Andover.

As reported in the Daily Echo, the county's Fire Brigade Union (FBU) has launched an online petition opposing changes at Eastleigh warning that lives could be at risk if the station was "downgraded."

The move to upgrade Andover would mean that instead of having two appliances covered by full-time crews at Eastleigh, there would be just one, with retained - or part-time - firefighters manning two further fire engines.

Senior Divisional Officer Kevin Butcher told last night's meeting the move would provide an improved level of service for a greater number of people across Hampshire by better deployment of resources.

He also argued that it would improve fire cover at Eastleigh because, at present, the second full-time appliance was a strategic reserve for the whole county and was often away from the town. But in future, there would be three fire engines available.

Eastleigh resident Jack Ashton said it seemed that as the population of Eastleigh increased, there were proposals to reduce the fire and rescue cover.

To applause from the audience, he added: "Tonight there has been a good explanation by Senior Divisional Officer Butcher, but I am still not fully assured that there will not be extreme difficulties."

Earlier, an unnamed member of the audience, said the number of houses in Eastleigh was growing and also pointed to growth at Southampton Airport.

He added: "A crash there would cause devastation. I think you are on very thin ice in removing fire cover from this area."

Another woman said she was "very concerned" and asked why the public had not been given the opportunity to hear the local firefighters' case.

Deputy chief fire officer Dave Curry said: "We didn't want it to be a judgement of two sides of an argument. We particularly wanted to collect your thoughts. We have provided other opportunities for our staff to provide their thoughts in the consultation process. All of the feedback is genuinely being listened to."

His colleague, deputy chief fire officer Alan House, also told the meeting that firefighters had not been excluded and would have been free to speak.