Home Office Fire Inspectors are today taking another look at North Yorkshire's fire service, after their scorching criticism of the brigade last year.

Their damning report, leaked to the Evening Press, has never been published, and the county's fire authority has been fighting to have some of the most critical parts of it amended.

The re-inspection follows a request made by the service after the Press carried the original draft report by a Government inspector last March.

It claimed that an overbearing and threatening management style was leading to staff stress, inefficiency and ill-health.

Terry Glover, press officer for North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service, confirmed today that Home Office inspectors were visiting the brigade this week. He said: "We wanted to be re-inspected because we didn't feel the other report was fair. We disagreed vehemently with it."

Chief fire officer Eric Clark said he would respond to the news of the re-inspection tomorrow. He said in his letter to the Home Office last October: "You may wish to know that the Fire Authority would not be averse to receiving an independent inspection by another inspector to provide an up-to-date report as an alternative to the Authority making a formal complaint."

In the original report the inspectors slated the fire and rescue service and its authority following an inspection last January.

It said there was considerable evidence to suggest that the management style was "overbearing, threatening, unsupportive and uncommunicative".

It also claimed that bad management style led to stress, inefficiency and ill-health among staff, and that the service continued to perform less well than most other fire brigades in meeting national recommended fire attendance times.

The report claimed that the cumulative effect was to create a "monster" which the authority would find "difficult to slay".

Under normal circumstances such reports would be made available to the public within about three months.

A spokesman for the Home Office said of this particular report: "This is an abnormal case and has not followed standard procedure."

Mr Glover said today that he suspected the original report would never be published.

Updated: 11:12 Wednesday, January 17, 2001