Seven full-time fire engines could be taken off the road at night under new proposals put forward by Surrey Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS).

The move would save Surrey County Council £3 million a year.

SFRS has released its Making Surrey Safer Plan 2020-2023, which outlines how it wants to improve the service it provides across the county.

Under the proposals, every station which currently has two or more fire engines would see changes to how they operate, while Banstead, Egham and Painshill fire stations would close completely at night.

Camberley, Guildford and Woking would all see the number of available fire engines reduced at night, as would the fire station in Fordbridge, which is yet to open.

Haslemere and Walton would have their current 'variable' fire engine, which is crewed by on-call firefighters at night, replaced with a day-only engine.

One serving firefighter has described the proposals, which were released on Monday (March 4), as "dangerous" and has asked the public to contact their local councillors over them.

The firefighter said: "I’m really disappointed that these proposals have been sent out for public consultation and included in the latest Integrated Risk Management Plan.

"It will put the lives of the public and firefighters at risk from a delayed response at night. It’s a very dangerous proposal and one I hope doesn’t come to fruition."

Proposed changes to fire station staffing

In the proposal document SFRS says under the plans it would increase the amount it spends on fire prevention in communities and businesses by £1-1.5 million a year, while saving £3 million a year by changing how it responds to emergencies.

The service says it has carried out a "detailed risk analysis" showing when and where its crews are needed most often, and has based the proposals on its findings.

It says that during days in the week and on weekends, at least 20 fire engines need to be available, while only 16 are needed at night.

The service currently has 20 full-time and 10 on-call fire engines in service at night. Under the proposals this would drop to 13 full-time and 10 on-call fire engines being available.

The document states SFRS is also looking at charging for some 999 calls, including for some animal rescues and false alarms.

Steve Owen-Hughes, acting chief fire officer for SFRS, said the plans would "bring firefighters closer to the communities we service" and allow SFRS to make best use of its resources.

"By keeping the same number of fire stations and fire engines as we have now but crewing some of them differently at night, when there is less call on us, we’ll be able to do more life-saving prevention work and staff training, to make sure our crews are ready to help when needed," he said.

"We'd still have the fire cover we need to keep Surrey safe during the day and night but we’d be able to step up our community safety work to prevent emergencies in the first place.

"And when we do need to respond, we want to do so as quickly as possible, so we’re taking steps such as reducing the time it takes between a call coming in and our firefighters leaving the station."

The full document can be found here.

Anyone wanting to respond to the proposals can do so online at www.surrey-fire.gov.uk/psp or by writing to PSP team, Surrey Fire and Rescue Service, Croydon Gate, Reigate, Surrey RH2 0EJ.

The deadline for responses to the consultation is May 26.