PLANS to 'downgrade' fire cover in Worcestershire towns have been criticised by the secretary of the Worcestershire Fire Brigades Union (FBU).

As an attempt to save £800,000, proposals have been outlined to change fire cover at evenings and weekends in Evesham and Malvern by Hereford and Worcester Fire Service.

If the plans go ahead, on-call firefighters would be working at weekends and in the evenings, with many of these likely to be retained staff with other jobs.

Steve Gould, secretary of the FBU in Worcestershire said: "We have a brand new fire station but are downgrading fire fighters, this is setting Evesham fire service back by 20 or 30 years.

"In Evesham and Malvern we've got 35,000 to 40,000 residents with no guarantee of fire cover, for them it's a downgrading."

If the proposals, which are currently at an early stage, get the go-ahead fire fighters will be in the station from 8.40am until 6pm with other cover provided on-call from home.

The news came after a press release on Monday from Hereford and Worcester Fire Service, which revealed that five firefighters will continue to be sent to blazes in Worcestershire.

This was after plans were released last month to cut that number to four per fire.

A spokesman for Hereford and Worcester Fire Service said: "The proposal will enable the first whole-time fire engine at each station to have a crew of five, whilst making the significant savings required to achieve a balanced budget and is part of a wider set of proposals to crew with five on the other whole-time fire engines across the service.

"Crewing is currently shared between on-call and whole-time firefighters to supply a range of skills, all firefighters have extensive training to a high standard.

" These proposals are the starting point for further engagement with staff and their trade unions and we are keen to work with them to address any concerns they may have. "

Currently, evening cover is two appliances at 5 minute response, which would stay the same, however, both crews would be made up of on-call firefighters rather than the current situation which sees one appliance manned by full-time firefighters

Weekends day cover is currently one whole-time appliance and the second appliance is on-call which would change to firefighters, on a part time contract, crewing appliances on station during the day.