A MERGER between Wiltshire and Dorset fire services is the only way to avoid major frontline cuts, according to a new report.

Wiltshire is facing a massive cut in central government funding over the next few years which could see the service go bankrupt if it is not addressed.

To deal with this issue a merger is being proposed with Dorset, which in terms of geography and population, is a similar service.

The business case for the merger has been released showing it is likely a merger would save in the region of £4.5 million, enough to plug the funding gap.

However, it is likely there would need to be an increase in the fire precept, which is included in people’s council tax bill, of several pounds per year.

A public consultation recently finished where several options were put forward including working closer with other agencies in Wiltshire, such as the police, and working alongside Dorset but with no formal merger.

But the business case has said these do not deliver the savings required and would likely mean redundancies for firefighters and possibly even the closure of stations. The results of the consultation show there is strong public support for the merger.

The report has been issued ahead of a meeting of the Wiltshire Fire Authority on November 11 where the decision will be made on whether to push ahead with the merger.

It reads: “Scenarios 1 and 2 (closer working with other bodies) provide likely case savings of between £1.1m and £1.2m, leaving remaining financial deficits in the order of £2m and £1.9m respectively by 2017/18, growing to around £2.7m in both cases the following year.

“Scenario 3 (a merger with Dorset) finds collective likely case savings of £4.5m, which could increase to £6m with the harmonisation of wholetime duty systems and crewing arrangements for aerial appliances across Dorset and Wiltshire.

“This would not involve compulsory firefighter redundancies and would maintain our current emergency response times for frontline fire engines. This would allow a balanced budget to be set in 2017/18 even under the worst case savings options.”

There have been several voices of opposition to the merger, with one reason being the fire precept for the two services are different so there would need to be a rise in Wiltshire where each household pays between £2.91 and £4.32 per year.

A rise this large would be above the normal two per cent limit so permission would be needed from the Department of Communities and Local Government, although it is understood this would not be a stumbling block for any merger.