A veteran fire engine could be putting lives at risk, according to disgruntled firefighters.

OLD VEHICLE: The 25-year-old fire engine which York firefighters believe is too old for the job Picture by Frank Dwyer

At about 25 years old, the old R-registered turntable ladder vehicle is said to be unreliable and not fast enough to deal with more distant call-outs.

Although the appliance is only used as a spare - to replace full-time vehicles when they're being serviced - a York firefighter who contacted the Evening Press said it should have been scrapped long ago.

He said it highlighted cutbacks his colleagues discussed at a Fire Brigades' Union conference held in Bridlington last week.

The York-based firefighter, who declined to be named, said: "The National Joint Council of Fire Authorities is cutting fire brigades down to save money. This will put more pressure on us and lives will be lost sooner or later because we have not got enough people in York.

"Now we have this turntable ladder. It's always been in the brigade from new. We have three - at York, Scarborough and Harrogate - and this is the spare one.

"The last time it came to York we didn't train on it because it kept breaking down. It arrived two or three days ago, as ours has gone for its annual service, and we took it for a test to see if it worked. It didn't. The ladder kept creeping forwards.

"The worst-case scenario would be for us to turn up at a scene and for it not to work at all. There's no reliability at all and it only goes at 40mph flat out. We often get calls to Selby or Drax power station and it takes a lifetime to get there. This could easily risk lives.

"We have been fighting tooth and nail to get this thing scrapped and get a new one. It just serves to emphasise the cutbacks."

At last week's Bridlington conference the Fire Brigades' Union rejected a package of new conditions for firefighters.

Terry Allison, North Yorkshire regional chairman for the FBU, said: "Rather than concentrate on firefighters' conditions they (fire authorities) should concentrate on giving them the proper equipment they are trained to use.

"That machine is like quite a few up and down the country. Because of cuts in the budget they cannot replace the machines they should."

Terry Glover, North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service spokesman, said: "If anyone has grievances with our equipment then there are procedures for them to follow. As far as we know none of these procedures have been used.

"Unless anybody has raised it with us there's nothing else we can say."

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