A RISE in the number of female firefighters is being blamed for Hereford and Worcester Fire Authority's below average staffing levels.

The rise has led to an increase in maternity leave - and the problem is likely to become worse because of changes in parental leave legislation and increased female recruitment.

Although only two firefighters have taken maternity leave over the past two years, the authority's policy is to take them off active duty as soon as they are known to be pregnant.

This means they are unable to man appliances for more than 12 months, which has a considerable impact on overall staffing levels.

The brigade is under pressure to improve staff attendance after inspections revealed there were often insufficient numbers to man appliances last year.

Early indications suggest that the performance has not improved so far, this year.

Other factors that have affected performance include members of staff being removed from their usual posts to tackle project work or attend senior management training courses, and the brigade's "global crewing" policy.

The policy was itself introduced to combat staff shortages within the fire brigade.

But it has meant many staff moving from multi-appliance stations to single-appliance stations, leaving the multi-appliance stations short-staffed.

The staffing problems have not affected response times or the number of appliances attending incidents, but the long-term outlook looks gloomy.

Predicted retirement levels from 2004 to 2010, will result in skill shortages at all levels.

This means recruitment and officer training will have to be increased significantly.

However, recruits are not available for operational duties until they have completed 14 weeks' training, which also has a damaging effect on staff availability.

The authority's director of corporate services, David Cowell, said the findings would not discourage the service from recruiting women.

"We have a clear policy to increase the numbers of female firefighters, but the fact remains that the more women we employ, the more maternity leave there is likely to be," he said.

"There's no easy solution - we can't just magic up staff from somewhere."

But Mr Cowell said the situation would have to become much worse before it affected the brigade's response levels.

"We are a million miles away from the point where we are unable to attend critical incidents," he said.

The problem of staff shortages was due to be discussed at a meeting of the fire authority in Worcester today.