UNION chiefs in the region will hold emergency talks today over plans for firefighters to ballot for industrial action.

The Fire Brigades Union (FBU) announced it will recommend possible strike action after it claimed councillors had failed to honour a pay deal reached last year.

The move could mean military Green Goddess vehicles being used to provide fire cover again.

Union leaders accused employers of putting up a series of last-minute obstacles to the deal and will recommend a new ballot for action at the annual conference of the FBU next week.

Brian Boyle, brigade secretary for the FBU in Durham and Darlington, said an emergency meeting would be held at the union's regional headquarter's in Gateshead today.

He said: "All the union reps from the region will be attending. There isn't anything much I can tell you because we don't know ourselves until after the meeting."

Fire service employers expressed amazement at the proposals and claimed the two sides had been poised to sign an agreement which would have released the outstanding 3.5 per cent due to firefighters as part of a phased pay deal that settled last year's dispute.

Councillor Christina Jebb, chairwoman of the employers' side in the national negotiations, said: "This is incredible. Just over a week ago we were on the verge of being able to release the outstanding 3.5 per cent. Now, the FBU have taken a huge step back from that. The employers stand firmly behind that agreement."

But FBU general secretary Andy Gilchrist accused the employers of having no intention of honouring the agreement.

He said: "We are angry and exasperated at councillors always moving the goalposts during these pay talks. Every time agreement is reached they put up another obstacle.

"They either want to honour the agreement and press on with modernisation or they do not.

"They have dithered and delayed for months and our patience has simply run out."