THE fight for full-time fire and rescue cover in the county could go to Europe.

Herefordshire MEP James Carver says road casualty figures alone make a case for two full-time crews at Hereford fire station.

Mr Carver was reacting to the release today of Department of Transport (DoT) statistics highlighting rural roads as the most dangerous in the country.

The DoT statistics show 365 casualties on the county’s rural roads over 2013 compared to 156 on urban routes.

Sixty-one of those rural road casualties were recorded as fatalities or serious injuries, compared to 13 on urban routes.

No fatalities were recorded on urban roads compared to five for rural routes.

Mr Carver said the statistics highlighted the need for full-time fire and rescue cover in the county.

“To respond to emergencies you need emergency services on the ground – I will fight any cuts that reduce full-time cover,” he said.

Hereford & Worcester Fire & Rescue Authority has backed a compromise to Hereford station losing one of its two full-time crews in a cuts plan.

Two crews will be available full-time over 12 hours during the day with the station’s second engine being covered by a retained crew over 12 hours at night.

A third engine remains retained as at present.

But the option assumes a crew as few as four for the full-time engine.

Herefordshire is the only county in the country served by a single full-time fire crew at night.

The fire authority accepts that the cuts will compromise response times in the county, but, maintains that, with the retained crews, enough back up is in place.

In voting for the cut, the fire authority committed the service to exploring the feasibility of the second engine being covered at by a different full-time shift pattern.

A report on that option – called day crew plus – is due before the authority within the next 6-12 months.

Members heard that, to secure savings, full-time crews could come down to as few as four unless some £800,000 was released from the service’s reserves to support the current five.

Four, members heard, was considered “safe” but the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) argues strongly against this.

The authority was voting on a savings plan called Community Risk Management (CRM) drawn up to cover the service’s projected budget gap of more than £2 million by 2016-17.

Under the first draft of CRM  - which outline cuts in funding for frontline services - Hereford would have lost an appliance with full-time cover down to a single engine backed up by a retained crew.

Ledbury and Tenbury will lose one of their two retained crews as originally proposed.

 Both towns plan protests over their respective losses

 The approved option saves just over £1.4 million leaving a shortfall of £236,000.