The downgrading of eight Warwickshire fire stations will deliver "a stronger guarantee" over service levels – despite a backlash from affected communities.

That is the view of the county's chief fire officer Ben Brook as he prepares to face the public over his resourcing to risk proposals. 

The current on-call system is to be replaced with part-time and teams that can be called in for surges in demand, leaving more resources available in places and at times that have the greatest demand. 

It means eight fire stations will go from having a level of staffing to appliances that are only used by surge teams when demand dictates. 

One of those is at Bidford-on-Avon where residents are unhappy, stating that their community is being placed at greater risk by having its dedicated on-call team disbanded. 

One of the biggest reasons behind the changes is a drop in available on-call firefighters.

Bidford has one of the better performing stations but overall availability is still around 50 per cent with bigger gaps in service during the day while those on call do their day jobs or fulfil other day-to-day commitments. 

Residents and representatives of the parish council addressed the county's cabinet – the panel of Conservative councillors in charge of major service areas and decisions – in November, questioning how one appliance in Stratford could effectively cater for any problems in rural areas to the south during the night. 

The fairness of "relegating thriving stations like this to unused buildings, resulting in the loss of effective stations" was also questioned.

Mr Brook told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: "I totally appreciate the feelings in places like Bidford.

"It is not just Bidford, there is Kenilworth, Polesworth, a total of eight locations in Warwickshire where people feel similarly, but we are trying to put the best resources we can across the whole of Warwickshire.

"If we could put a fire engine in every location all the time then of course we would but these are the resources we have.

"We are going through consultation now where we are welcome to any other suggestions and proposals on how we can make this model more effective and work for the majority of people in Warwickshire but we have a certain level of resource and we have to allocate that as best we can – I have to look at the whole of Warwickshire, not just local pockets.

"We don't want anyone to be disenfranchised through this. We hope that our on-call firefighters will transition across to the surge and part-time evening shifts, we want that to happen and we believe the majority can, if they choose to, which gives them the opportunity to serve their communities."

Mr Brook acknowledged that surge stations would lie dormant outside of peaks in demand but said that is the case now at times when on-call availability is low. 

"We will guarantee a (surge) station having a fire engine with all the equipment," he said.

"The maximum time it will take us to get that appliance operational is two hours – and that's all the time, 24-7.

"That is a stronger guarantee to our public. That fire station is not available 60 per cent of the time now and I cannot bring people in.

"It might be available within 10 minutes, it could be immediate, but the fire station is open and the equipment is there to roll out in the event of a surge incident."

He said the surge capacity could add up to eight fire engines to the proposed 12 staffed during the day and eight on shift at night. 

"I can't guarantee that today, the most I can guarantee to our communities today is eight at night and 11 in the day," he added. 

Warwickshire Fire & Rescue Service has refuted assertions that the plan has been designed to cut costs, stating that the same resources are being deployed but in different way.

Asked whether he considered the service to be adequately resourced, Mr Brook replied: "I have spent a lot of time in a large metropolitan fire service with large budgets, 2.9 million people in a very small urban area that has faster response times.

"Our firefighters do half the incidents they do, so if you look at the costs per incident and the costs per head of population, we are resourced effectively for that.

"As someone responsible for the fire and rescue service you always want more, but I am really aware of the pressures on the county council (Warwickshire, the authority responsible for the fire service) and if you compare us to other fire and rescue services we are in a similar position, if not better funded than some.

"I am aware of the competing pressures the county council has, and Andy (Councillor Andrew Crump, portfolio holder for fire and rescue and community safety) is more aware of them than I am. You always want more, of course, but I am realistic."

Cllr Crump (Con, Southam, Stockton & Napton) added: "The county is suffering with inflation across many areas – social care for children and adults, special educational needs (SEN), home-to-school transport are the ones under severe pressure.

"It is about using what we have more wisely, Hereford and Worcestershire are doing something similar, trying to put resources in the right place.

"We also have to recognise that HMICFRS (His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services) said we have an area for improvement around resources, that we need to use them more efficiently and effectively. They looked at the crewing patterns that were about to come out and said we were making progress.

"We are currently paying for resources that we are getting very little benefit for. That is no criticism of the firefighters at those stations but that money could be used for making sure we reduce the number of fires and incidents we have to go to through prevention and protection.

"Some 95-96 per cent of the work of fire and rescue is to do with prevention and protection – sometimes, you could see having to go out as having failed. 

"In the past there have been incidents where we have responded within 10 minutes but a person has already been dead many, many minutes before that. I don't want anyone to be killed or seriously injured, and certainly not in an incident that we can prevent, so let's try to prevent as much as we can."

The plan has led to some difficult conversations but Mr Brook insists he has no problem with that.

"The worst thing would be not hearing from people and communities, that they close down and don't talk," he said. 

"In relation to ideas, surge is the big one. People are asking whether there could be a 10-minute turn-in time for surge to give more night cover in the south and other parts of Warwickshire. People are concerned and we are listening and trying to work on that. 

"This is why I think it is appropriate that we haven't presented a completely done deal, that is important because this is a genuine consultation. People are coming up with brilliant ideas that I think we can take forward. 

"They are hard conversations at times because there isn't agreement but I am really grateful that people are taking an interest, having their say and generally doing that in a really positive way. We want to keep that conversation going."