COUNCIL tax payers look likely to foot the bill for another cash crisis in our emergency services. North Yorkshire Fire Authority wants a quarter of a million pounds to balance the books, and is asking the county council and City of York Council for the money.

No taxpayer begrudges paying for the fire brigade. It is an essential service. Without the bravery and skill of the brigade's officers, many lives would be lost. But every taxpayer begrudges paying for administrative blunders.

The Fire Authority blames the mess on a national agreement to give holiday back-pay to retained firefighters, and on an increase in pension pay-outs. The first problem could not be foreseen, the second could.

Last December the authority forced through £200,000 in cuts, half of which came from the pension fund. This quick-fix policy has clearly backfired.

The fire brigade is not the only service which appears unable to manage its pension funds properly. North Yorkshire police Chief Constable David Kenworthy has warned that his budget is being squeezed by a growing pensions bill.

We expect police officers and firefighters to spend their working lives putting themselves at risk to protect us. They deserve to retire on a decent pensions package. But pensions money should not come out of the budget earmarked for frontline services.

Police officers pay 11 per cent of their salaries towards their pension, yet this money has regularly been raided to pay for other parts of the service. This cannot go on: a nationally agreed restructuring of emergency services pension funds is needed.

But this does not allow the North Yorkshire Fire Authority off the hook. A draft of the Fire Service Inspectorate report on the brigade, revealed by the Evening Press in March, criticised the authority's "piecemeal approach to annual budget reductions" which "seriously affects the underpinning support services and functions". That was three months ago. Unfortunately for taxpayers, the authority has yet to get a proper grip on its finances.