FIREFIGHTERS in Dorset will stage a four-day strike starting tonight in an ongoing row over pensions.

Staged by the Fire Brigades Union (FBU), members will walk out on this evening at 6pm until 6pm on Tuesday, November 4, after they failed to reach an agreement with the government over reforms to the Firefighter's Pension Scheme.

The chief fire officer for Dorset Fire and Rescue Service (DFRS) Darran Gunter has urged people to take extra care at home and on the roads during the strike, which coincide with Halloween and the nights leading up to Guy Fawkes night.

It is the 42nd period of strike action held by the FBU since September 2013, as they try to negotiate changes to the pension scheme.

The union states that under the proposed changes firefighters will be forced to work until they are 60 instead of 55, pay more into their pensions and get less in retirement.

Karen Adams, secretary of the Dorset FBU, said firefighters in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland were all offered deals on the reforms to avoid strike action by their respective governments, such as flexible retirement options and more protection for older firefighters.

These deals were agreed to by firefighters, but no such deal was offered to the service in England which triggered the strike action, Mrs Adams said.

Mrs Adams said: “We've been in talks with the government for two months now to try and get a revised offer.

“When the Welsh Assembly offered the deal to firefighters, we were expecting to be offered the same deal by the English government, which we would have accepted, but they decided not to.

“We feel like we have been strung along yet again by the government. We have tried our hardest for three years to settle this and we can't.”

Mrs Adams added it was unfortunate timing the strike action would happen over the weekend. She added: “We have to give seven days notice of any strike action and from when we found out we weren't going to be offered anything, we gave notice which falls on this weekend.

“People are going to say it's deliberate but it wasn't, it's just the way it fell. We are hoping that four days is going to be too difficult for other services to provide cover, which will make the government take notice and continue talks.

“Nobody wants to do this. It's no good for anybody and it needs resolving.”

Mr Gunter said DFRS had put plans in place during the strikes to ensure the service could cope and was talking to local businesses to ensure they would remain safe during the strikes.

Mr Gunter said: “As with the previous strikes we will once again be putting our contingency arrangements in place. We are disappointed the FBU and the Government have not been able to come to an agreement about the firefighters pension scheme at this stage.

“It is important to stress that this is a national dispute.

“We have put plans in place to ensure Dorset Fire and Rescue is able to respond to incidents, but we would ask members of the public to take extra steps to reduce the risk of a fire breaking out in their home.”