WITH regard to Eric Leaver's column (LET, October 23), I was extremely disappointed to read such an ill-informed, ill-researched and inflammatory article.

May I respond to some of his comments? Firstly, "Where do they get that 40 per cent figure from?" The figure, which is, in fact, £30,000 per year for a fully-trained and qualified firefighter, (the average for other professional and technical workers) comes from the same independent Labour review that came up with the increase of 40 per cent for MPs' salaries an increase that MPs not surprisingly accepted and one which John Prescott vigorously defended saying, "We're worth it."

In fact there have been eight independent reviews already into the Fire Service, one of which looking into standards of fire cover in the UK, recommended that to ensure public safety, a 100 per cent increase in the establishment was needed. Not surprisingly the government have not made these finding public knowledge.

As to farms and building sites being more dangerous places to work, I would ask Mr Leaver, who he thinks it is that have to risk their lives rescuing the people who work in these dangerous jobs when they become trapped in a grain silo or trench collapse? No one in the Fire Service wants to go on strike and no one has taken this decision lightly, but when you are dealing with people like Mr Prescott who have simply refused to talk since early in the year, there is absolutely no other course of action.

Finally the stereotype of the snooker playing firefighter is as inaccurate as that of the tired old hack composing his article over a four-hour liquid lunch in the nearest pub, never once letting the truth get in the way of a good story.

DAVID LEEMING, Cherry Tree Way, Blackburn.