it also infers that such movement of staff is a direct consequence of a poor government funding settlement, points I must refute as being unfounded and ill-informed.

While the Authority is clearly at a disadvantage in terms of receipt of an equitable share of government grant compared with some other fire authorities, this has no bearing on the practice of moving firefighters between fire stations to cover short-term staffing gaps.

Moving firefighters from their usual fire station for a day or a night shift is a long established and cost-effective practice. The practical alternative would be to employ more firefighters simply to compensate for higher than desirable levels of staff sickness. The Fire Brigades' Union (FBU), like any trade union, will understandably seek to increase its membership and campaign for more staff, but this is an outdated stance.

While the public quite rightly expect their Fire and Rescue Service to be properly staffed, trained and able to respond swiftly in times of emergency, the public does not want to be faced with large increases in council tax to fund it. Striking the balance between the two competing issues is therefore an important consideration and one that the Fire and Rescue Authority takes very seriously.

I believe that the approach managers take to planning staffing levels at each of the county's fire stations does strike the right balance.

Such planning takes into account all the factors which reduce staff availability, such as the underlying rate of sickness absence,
annual leave entitlement and training courses.

Reports show standard crewing levels were only achieved on 55 per cent of occasions 10 years ago, whereas now through the use of improved management systems and global crewing arrangements, optimum staffing levels are achieved on 80 per cent or more occasions across the service. This is a significant improvement and one that better safeguards the public.

The alternative to the current practice of moving firefighters between fire stations would be to employ an extra firefighter on each shift, which would mean employing an additional 30 front line firefighters across the service at an additional annual cost to the taxpayer of almost £1m, compared with a few thousand pounds under the current practice (fuel price increases notwithstanding).

Such an approach, if pursued, would not only be wasteful, but may also send out the wrong message by effectively condoning higher levels
of sickness.


Customers can support Britain in M&S

From: Simon Handley, Pye Lane, Harrogate.
JOHN Gibson is not alone in searching for British suits in M&S (Yorkshire Post, July 5). I recently called in to the Leeds store to buy a suit which I knew was made with cloth by Leeds company, Alfred Brown.

None of the assistants could guide me to these suits, instead pointing me to The Italian Collection on display, despite these suits being of no interest to me. I did eventually find the British suits hidden behind piles of racking. My experience, as well as Mr Gibson's, reflects badly on M&S.

There are probably more customers out there who would be keen to buy British suits, if only they were better promoted.
I strongly urge Mr Gibson to revisit his store and search out these suits. What a shame that M&S should lose much-needed sales, and worse, a customer due to insufficient marketing. Now is the time to support Britain.