MORE than 100 frontline jobs could be slashed from fire stations across Hampshire under sweeping government cuts, the Daily Echo can reveal.

Proposals to axe firefighters and vehicles would put the public at risk, with higher response times and less cover in emergencies, a whistleblower has warned.

Frontline staff across the county are being warned about possible job losses this week as Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service wrestles with government cuts of £12.2 million over the next four years.

Draft proposals for 11 stations, passed to the Daily Echo by a former station watch manager, put 118 jobs under threat, including frontline staff in Southampton, Eastleigh, Basingstoke and Winchester.

Under the proposals, Eastleigh Fire Station would lose all 36 of its full-time firefighters, with an urban search and rescue team from Hampshire’s Leigh Road headquarters moving in and part-timers covering night shifts.

Ten jobs would be lost in Southampton, with six facing the axe at Hightown station and another four at Redbridge Hill.

As previously reported, Winchester would lose 14 posts while Basingstoke faces a cut of 12.

Daily Echo:

Hampshire’s Fire Brigades Union chairman Nigel McCullen has warned one in four part-time jobs could go along with 18 per cent of full-time posts, but initial plans have yet to be revealed to the public.

The former firefighter, who asked not to be named, said: “I have no doubt that the public and firefighters will be put at further risk if these cuts go ahead. They will be dangerous.

“Some stations feel they have been cut to the bone and are operating on the minimum already.”

Twenty full-time jobs could go in Southsea under the proposals, with 14 under threat in Gosport.

The cuts are expected to extend to retained fire stations manned by staff on call. Alton could lose a fire engine and Overton would lose two, to be replaced with a smaller first response vehicle.

A drop in appliances would affect crews who are often told not to enter burning buildings until a second engine arrives, the whistleblower added.

He said: “If that second fire engine is a way away, as is likely to happen with these cuts, people are going to be waiting longer in emergency situations for help.

“[Staff] have been forbidden from talking between stations and between watches about the risk review proposals, so morale is very low.”

Fire chiefs say no decisions have been made. No stations are expected to close and they hope to manage any job losses by not replacing staff as they leave, union bosses have said.

Mr McCullen, Hampshire’s Fire Brigades Union chief, said: “In the cities, in the country, the fire service in Hampshire is not going to be what people think it’s going to be. The public may not get the type of fire engine with the number of personnel they’re expecting.

“We have an element of sympathy with the Hampshire fire service because the cuts have been imposed on them,” he added. “This is happening all over the country – fire services are being slashed left, right and centre.”

A 12-week public consultation is set to begin in September, with a final decision in February 2016. The agreed changes will be implemented from April.

Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service has yet to comment.