Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Fire Authority is proposing to increase its share of the council tax for 2023/2024 to prevent station closures and redundancies.

With spiralling inflation affecting costs of supplies, energy, fuel, pay and more, Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service is anticipating starting the 2023/24 financial year with a £ 1.1 million deficit.

Having been "pushed to the limits" this year, the authority suggests a 6.6 per cent council tax increase, which for a Band D property equates to an additional £4.95 a year and £79.92 in total.

Chief fire officer Chris Strickland said: "The sad reality is, that even with housing growth in the county and our government funding increasing in line with inflation, unless we can ask for more money from council tax payments, we are going to have to make redundancies and potentially close up to three of our on-call fire stations to balance the budget."

Mr Strickland explained that the fire service has carried out a significant project in an attempt to recover some of the £ 1.1 million deficit.

The fire service managed to strip out some more efficiencies, but this only covered a small part of what was needed and inhibits the ability to improve the fire service.

"We have been making efficiencies within our service for the last decade which have exceeded £7 million in real terms, and this has been so that we could keep council tax increases to a minimum and continue to improve our service," added Mr Strickland.

"We have done this protecting the frontline, managing to have the same number of firefighters riding a fire engine, as well as introducing two additional fire engines available in the daytime.

"But this year has shown just how close to the wire we have now become, with the hot, dry summer creating a demand that pushed us to the limits."

Councillor Edna Murphy, chair of the Fire Authority, continued: "We know that times are tough for people right now and raising our share of the council tax is not something we do lightly as we appreciate the impact it has on everyone.

"Increasing the council tax by 6.6 per cent will allow us to balance the budget next year without being forced to make significant, damaging cuts that could have a detrimental impact on the service we currently provide."