A row over an unsigned lease could see East Midlands Ambulance Service staff evicted from their offices at Leicestershire Fire and Rescue's £12 million HQ.

Employees of the ambulance service occupied the top floor of the Birstall building around two years ago but no lease was ever signed and the Leicestershire Live understands no rent has been paid.

Leicestershire’s Combined Fire Authority (CFA) warned EMAS in September that it wanted the lease agreed by December but the issue has still not been sorted.

Now CFA chairman Nick Rushton says he had lost patience with EMAS describing it as ‘bloody awful’.

At this week's CFA meeting members voted unanimously to tell EMAS they must sign a lease within the next six months or get out.

A frustrated councillor Rushton said: “They have been there too damn long not signing up.

“I’m fed up with them. They are letting us down badly here.

“We know they are a very bad organisation to deal with but I’d like to bring some fire to bear on them.

“They can’t stay there and not sign the lease.

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“You wouldn’t allow it if you were renting out your granny’s house and we shouldn't allow it when we are renting out a large part of the fire authority building.

“They are awful to deal with. They really are bad.

"There’s no-one in charge and no political accountability.

“They’re bloody awful.”

He told Leicestershire Live: “We have been stuck with this building due to decisions taken before my time and as the fire service has contracted we have been left with more empty space.

“We wanted to make use of that space and we thought the ideal people to come in would be our fellow bluelighters.

“It’s a sensible way forward and it happens all over the country.

“But they haven’t signed the lease so we are playing hardball and saying you’ve got six months sign up or you’re out.

“We don’t want them to go – we want them to sign – but this can’t go on.

"There's no accountability there. They have no leader you can go to get things sorted.

What the chief fire officer says

Chief fire officer Rick Taylor said it was unfortunate several changes in EMAS’s senior leadership had meant the two bodies had been unable to reach a final agreement.

He said: “Every time there is a change in terms of legal positions they want some different clarity on wording which has dragged the whole thing out.

"It is deeply frustrating.

"I am more than happy to be clear with EMAS over the CFA’s position that if they do not get within six months I am more than happy to look to legal to see what other options we have next.

“We have had our fingers burned in relationships to try to work on good will.

“Unfortunately our good will has been eroded.”

Leicestershire Live has asked the fire service how much rent it is due from EMAS but it has declined to say.

Councillor Bill Boulter, who sat on the fire authority this week, said: “As far as I know they haven’t paid a penny.

“I don’t understand how this situation – where EMAS don’t have a lease but are still in the offices – came about in the first place and has been allowed to continue for so long

“It doesn’t reflect well on anyone. It’s totally unsatisfactory."

The fire service’s monitoring officer Lauren Haslam said she did not know the history of how the occupation came to arise ‘without the formalities being entered into.’

However she said she was certain the rent due would be paid retrospectively by EMAS.

She said work was going on to ‘regularize the situation’ and it was not right that the situation had arisen without the proper formalities being entered into.

What does EMAS say?

EMAS deputy chief executive and finance director Mike Naylor said: “We have worked successfully for many years with NHS, public sector and blue light partners across the East Midlands agreeing to many very positive shared-facility developments to ensure effective use of public money while ensuring we can meet our statutory obligations as an emergency service.

“We moved into the shared Birstall offices in autumn 2015 and we continue to work with the Combined Fire Authority to agree a final version of the lease that we are confident is in EMAS’s best interests and acceptable to both sides.

“There are a number of yet-to-be-resolved issues and once these have been agreed, I very much look forward to receiving a bill from the fire service, which we can pay, bringing this matter to a satisfactory conclusion.”