NORTH Yorkshire Fire Authority has vowed to address the amount of time businesses in the county have to wait for fire safety certificates.

The promise follows the release of government figures showing North Yorkshire to have had a relatively poor record in processing the vital forms over the last three years.

Despite significant improvements in recent years, the latest figures available (2003-2004) show applications by businesses in the county face an average wait of nearly 70 days - almost ten days longer than the fire authority's nominal target to deal with all requests.

North Yorkshire fire safety manager Ian Bitcon said: "We had some difficulty initially with how we recorded the time pending applications under our control.

"We were counting days when the ball wasn't in our court so to speak - when the application may have been in the hands of the applicant or architects, or we were waiting for work to be done.

"We will endeavour to ensure we improve how we fulfil our statutory duties.

"We want to spend our time effectively to cut waiting times."

Under new plans due to come into force in April next year, the certificates will be scrapped in favour of regulations aimed at further cutting waiting times. Under the Regulatory Reform Order, fire safety will become the responsibility of business owners, with individual risk-assessment plans drawn up by the proprietor replacing one statutory regulation for all.

Len Cruddas, chief executive of York and North Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce, said that, despite the figures, local businesses have not complained of significant delays.

He said: "We are looking forward to the introduction of the new regulations and hope they will further reduce the waiting times."

Updated: 11:25 Friday, March 11, 2005