THE Fire Service Inspectorate's damning report into the North Yorkshire brigade is destined to be filed in the waste paper basket. This is nothing less than a scandal.

Leaked to the Evening Press in March last year, the preliminary assessment of the inspectors made for grim reading. Firefighters were demoralised, it said. In a memorable phrase, the management style was condemned as "overbearing, threatening, unsupportive and uncommunicative". As a result, levels of stress and sickness were high.

That was more than ten months ago. We have been waiting for the final version ever since. The delays were caused by North Yorkshire Fire And Rescue Service bosses furiously lobbying to change the report. Their efforts have paid off handsomely. The report is not merely to be changed, it is to be suppressed. A new inspection is underway.

This charade has wasted time and money. More damagingly, it has made a mockery of the entire inspection process.

The fire brigade is a vital, life-saving public service. The Fire Service Inspectorate is supposed to hold the brigade to account. It should be a rigorously independent watchdog whose first duty is to the public interest.

On their original visit, the inspectors upheld that brief. They were clearly shocked by the management culture at North Yorkshire Fire And Rescue Service, and they said so. Now our watchdog has turned into a lapdog, willing, it seems, to quash its original criticisms.

Fire brigade bosses were devastated by the hard-hitting report. They believe the conclusions painted an unrecognisable picture of the service, an allegation which questions the inspectorate's ability to produce a fair and disinterested report.

Nevertheless, they should not have sought to stop publication, but challenged the report once it was in the public domain. As it is, the allegations of the first draft will dog the brigade indefinitely. Whatever the conclusions of the new report, they will be tainted by the censorship of the original.