THREE days of firefighter strikes began today following a new dispute between firefighters and the fire service.

Members of the county’s Fire Brigades’ Union branch claim Essex County Fire and Rescue Service is planning to cut 25 per cent of the full time service - or 179 firefighters. About 100 have already been cut since 2010.

Brigade Secretary Alan Chinn- Shaw said: “We are facing cuts of an unprecedented scale resulting in more than a quarter of all frontline firefighter jobs being cut.

“It will be impossible to maintain the same safe and professional service we currently provide.”

Resilience procedures have been put in place for the full 72 hours from today, even though union firefighters had only planned to strike during certain hours, with the service refusing to accept “partial performance”.

A spokesman for the service said: “This means firefighters withdrawing their labour for any part of a shift will not be required, or paid, for the whole shift. The service will have greater availability with its resilience arrangements in place, than it otherwise would.”

Firefighters also remain in dispute regarding pension and working condition changes which have led to numerous strikes.