Firefighters could be made redundant and fire stations could be closed as the county council looks to cut millions from its budget.

Parliament pushed through plans to cut local government spending by 24 per cent on Monday.

Hertfordshire County Council will now need to slash £45 million from its budget next year, prompting fears vital services, including the fire service, could be cut.

Hertfordshire Fire and Rescue employs 807 operational staff, 118 non-uniformed support staff based across the county and there are 29 fire stations.

Councillor Paul Zukowskyj, Lib Dem resources spokesman, said: “We are strongly suspect the fire service may be under threat.

“My suspicion is that fire stations may be closed and fire fighters will be made redundant.

“The review which we know is happening is designed to make the fire service as efficient as possible. They may decide to go with a more extreme version.

“Last year, there was a budget where there was a large chunk of money cut out of the budget but the fire service took virtually none of that.

“Sooner or later, the axe is going to have to come down.”

Cllr Zukowskyj also pointed towards plans to close both Hatfield and Welwyn Garden City’s fire stations and merge them into a single site in Hatfield.

Fire chiefs had urged Welwyn Hatfield Council to covert the two sites into housing when they were responding to the area’s local plan.

Since 2010 the county council has cut £211m from its budgets.

But the 24 per cent drop in local government funding announced by Chancellor George Osborne means the authority will need to cut even deeper.

Councillor Chris Hayward, cabinet member for resources in Hertfordshire County Council, accused the Liberal Democrat opposition of “scaremongering”, adding that they were hoping to secure more government funding to prevent more cuts needing to be made.

He said: “We will never cut anything that puts any lives at risk. We would never make those cuts.

“I am not going to be commenting on any individual services.

“But we will look at all possible sensible savings that could be made.”

The Tory Cllr admitted the settlement from the government was “worse than they had expected”.

“I am looking to meet with someone in government to see if Hertfordshire’s settlement could be reviewed. It does seem seriously unfair to us.”