London's mayor is on a collision course with the capital's fire authority in a worsening row over fire station closures and job losses in the capital.

The authority voted narrowly not to comply with a direction by Boris Johnson that it should hold a public consultation on controversial proposals to close 12 fire stations, with the loss of 520 jobs, as part of £45 million of savings.

The Mayor now faces the prospect of having to take legal action, which could lead to a lengthy hearing in the High Court.

Mr Johnson stepped into the dispute by taking the unprecedented step of directing the authority to move towards a consultation on the cost-cutting measures.

But after a three-hour debate, partly held in private, the authority decided not to hold public consultation because it did not agree with any fire station closures.

London fire commissioner Ron Dobson has proposed cutting around 10% of frontline firefighter posts, adding that he hoped to avoid compulsory redundancies.

The number of fire stations would be reduced to 100 under the proposals.

He said the number of fire incidents in London was down by a third in the past decade, with fire appliances only used 7% of the time.

A total of 24 fire stations dealt with two or fewer incidents a day, while the average firefighter was called out to 195 incidents a year, with only 48 of those involving fires, he said.