The lives of Surrey residents and firefighters will be put at risk by another round of funding cuts, a fire station has warned.

A member of one of Surrey's fire stations, who asked not be named, told the Comet: “The future of your service is in grave danger, with Surrey facing the biggest funding cuts in England.

“This is not only putting all of you at risk, but also putting the firefighters’ own lives in danger.

“The morale amongst firefighters is currently at rock bottom with many transferring to other brigades, leaving early, or seeking new jobs due to high levels of stress, fatigue and a very uncertain future with redundancies looming.

"Our borough has the highest council tax in the country and we do not believe that this should be happening, enough is enough."

Fire stations across the county have taken to social media to sound the alarm about the impact of austerity on local services, after the county council announced it expected savings of around £5.8 million by 2021 in its medium-term financial plan.

In August, Surrey County Council imposed a ban on individual fire stations and ordered brigades to close down their Facebook pages.

Despite this, unofficial Facebook pages for individual fire stations across the county continue to sound the alarm on station closures and reduced coverage.

The unnamed fire station member added: “This has had an amazing response making national tabloids and radio stations, as well as keeping all local residents up to date with events, incidents and closures.

“This great response has been met by SCC ordering them to close all Facebook pages, gagging them from speaking out and informing the public of the dangers that they are being put in on a daily basis.”

A Surrey County Council spokesman said: “We’re committed to continuing to transform the fire service to meet the modern needs of our residents and keep them as safe as possible.

“The work expected of our fire crews has changed greatly in recent years so it is vital we have an agile service that can respond to these changing needs.

“We’re investing in new equipment and vehicles and recently carried out a recruitment campaign. Our focus is on creating a flexible service to ensure we have the right people and the right equipment in the right place at the right time to keep Surrey’s residents safe.”