LOCAL firefighters in Salisbury have written to Wiltshire's chief fire officer telling him that morale is at 'rock bottom'.

The letter has gone out from the Ashley Road fire station as Wiltshire's fire authority puts the finishing touches to its plans to provide emergency cover in the event of a strike by the country's firefighters.

Several members of Salisbury Fire Brigade jointly wrote the letter to chief fire officer Andy Goves telling him of the "massive lack of morale."

Their spokesman, Neil Endicott said: "We're confident that every one of us wants to get back to normal, get back to work and put this whole sorry saga behind us once and for all.

"We appreciate that to a large extent you are unable to affect decisions at a national level. However, as our chief fire officer, we feel you should be made aware of the massive lack of morale that we are feeling at the moment towards our fire service leaders generally."

Talks between the Fire Brigades Union and the local government employers broke down in London last week and the union is now preparing to ballot its members across the country on taking further industrial action over the money it claims firefighters are owed from last November and from July 1 this year.