A weekly newspaper has launched a campaign to prevent a fire engine being axed under budget cuts.

The Cumberland and Westmorland Herald has started a campaign to save one of Penrith’s two fire engines, which could be taken out of service to save £50,000 a year.

As part of the campaign, the title has produced posters against the cuts for local business and readers to display, in a bid to stop the removal of the fire engine.

Cumbria County Council is also proposing to cut fire engine capacity from two to one at four other stations in the county – Kendal, Maryport, Workington and Whitehaven – which could save Cumbria Fire and Rescue Service £540,000 in total each year.

The weekly’s campaign was launched last week with the backing of Penrith businessman Chris Gilford, whose Little Chippy premises were damaged in a blaze earlier this year.

He said he faced a wait of around 20 minutes before fire crews arrived because the two Penrith engines were dealing with a road traffic incident and he believed the damage to his shop would have been minimised if the service had been able to arrive more promptly.

Reporter Craig McGlasson, who is leading the campaign for the paper, said the title wanted to make people aware of what was being planned while a public consultation is being carried out.

He said: “We have had a positive response since it was launched. We have got people whose children have been involved in quite serious road accidents who have come on board with us.

“Our campaign is going to be running into the New Year when the consultation ends. The key for us is trying to get people involved. Hopefully it will go from strength to strength.

“We are trying to protect a very valuable community resource.”

The Penrith fire station where the two engines are based was opened last year at a cost of around £6m.

Fire chiefs have defended the plans to cut the number of fire engines and said there was no evidence it would put people at risk.