THE Fire Brigades Union has said the passing of yesterday’s budget leaves those in Brighton and Hove at greater risk.

Many would say this is typical scaremongering.

But if you look at the facts, they have got to be right.

We will lose 24 firefighters and one engine in the city.

Will that leave us with enough of a service to keep us safe?

The truth is nobody knows.

There is no arguing that firefighting has changed a great deal over the decades.

The service we required 100, 50, even 20 years ago is different to what we require today.

But whether it has changed so much that we can afford to lose 24 firefighters in the city, only time will tell.

On the average day when a small kitchen fire is as bad as it gets, then of course there are going to be plenty of firefighters doing not very much.

That is the nature of the job.

It is when there is a major emergency the reduced strength of the service will be tested.

We all hope such incidents are few and far between.

But you only have to look back a few months for examples.

There was of course the Shoreham Airshow disaster last August and the huge fire at Argus Lofts last June.

This coincided with another fire at the Hove Engineerium which tested the service’s ability to cope.

Brighton and Hove is not the easiest of places for emergency crews at the best of times.

Many of our streets are tight and narrow and a large percentage of homes are in multi-storey blocks.

We need to be prepared for all situations.

Only time will tell if we are.