WILTSHIRE Council leader Jane Scott is calling for the joint Wiltshire and Dorset Fire and Rescue Service to be broken up, just six months after it was created.

Baroness Scott wants to bring the Wiltshire service under the control of the county’s Police Commissioner, Conservative Angus Macpherson, claiming it would “maximise the effectiveness and efficiency of our blue-light services”.

In a House of Lords committee debate on Wednesday she asked Home Office Minister Baroness Williams whether she could “de-couple” the brigades.

The merger, which was opposed by Wiltshire Council but favoured by the chiefs of both counties’ fire services, was approved following a public consultation in the two counties, with two-thirds of respondents in favour.

The Fire Brigades Union has condemned the Baroness’s latest move, saying it is politically motivated and would be a backward step.

Regional rep Tam McFarlane said: “We are an independent humanitarian service. If we were combined with the police that would be lost. People would treat us in a totally different way.”

He feared the fire service would be run down and its budget used to prop up the police force.

Former Wiltshire Fire Authority chairman Graham Payne, a Tory who favoured the merger, said the new joint service, with annual savings of £6million, was being held up as an example of how other counties’ services could combine.

Full story in Thursday’s Journal.