MILITARY Green Goddesses will hit the streets of Bury on Tuesday (Oct 29) for the first time in 25 years.

As firefighters begin the first of 36 days of strike action, the ageing appliances, two dozen of them already in position at Holcombe Moor Training Camp, will be tackling fires across the borough.

Firefighters want a 40 per cent increase on their basic minimum salary which is currently £21,500. The Government has rejected the inflation-busting demand and this week one Bury councillor branded the strikers "selfish and uncaring".

Yesterday (Thurs Oct 24), Sub Officer Bill Gibbon from Bury Fire Station, who manned the Green Goddesses as a soldier in the 1977 strike, defended their action, claiming the Government had forced the Fire Brigade Union members into a corner.

"This is very much a last resort. Our claim for improved pay is not a new thing. It is has been going on for a number of years. None of us wants to strike, but we have no other option.

"All we are seeking is a fair wage for what is a very dangerous job. Lives will be put at risk but people have to remember that firefighters and their families will also be in danger during the industrial action. We are not doing this lightly."

But that view won little sympathy from Besses councillor Alan Matthews, Bury's representative on the Greater Manchester Fire and Civil Defence Authority.

Coun Matthews said he could not understand why firefighters and control staff had voted to strike when they already received salaries in line with police officers and better than many doctors and nurses.

The Labour man added: "They are being silly. We have put money aside for a 3.5 per cent pay rise for operational staff but we are prepared to cover the four per cent which is being offered nationally.

"The fire authority is already £5 million in debt and we cannot afford to give them a 40 per cent increase.

"If that happened then most of the extra cost would have to be met by the public and I am sure the people in Bury would not want an extra £20 on their community charge to pay for the firefighters."

Coun Matthews believes the only way forward is for the firefighters to wait for the Government's review in December which could resolve the dispute without the need for industrial action.

"The Fire Service Union are trying to bully the Government. They know that the military personnel manning the Green Goddesses will not be as well trained as regular firefighters. The strikers are being selfish and don't care about the welfare of the public."