Fire brigade wants road accident fees

London fire chiefs want to impose charges for attending road crashes and even for services such as giving safety advice, it emerged today.

Planned changes to the law give fire authorities increased powers to charge up to £250 an hour for callouts not directly fire-related.

These could also include freeing people stuck in lifts, "pumping out" flooded premises and rescuing animals from trees.

A leaked memo from the London authority's head of legal services Steve Starling makes it clear that fire chiefs plan to push for levies "at a commercial rate".

Shadow fire services minister Philip Hammond said of the road accident charge proposal: "The prospect will strike fear into the hearts of motorists.

"The Government must explicitly exclude this or it will seem that it has a hidden agenda to transfer costs of road accident rescue on to the motorist through higher insurance premiums."