Despite snow and freezing temperatures a dozen "brave souls" turned out on Saturday to demonstrate against the removal of Epsom's second fire engine.

Residents and councillors gathered outside Epsom fire station, on Church Street, holding banners proclaiming Save Lives Not Money, to oppose plans by Surrey Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) to remove one of Epsom's two fire engines.

SFRS launched a consultation last year on redeploying its teams after West Sussex Fire Service decided to pull a fire engine out of Horley.

Under the proposals, Epsom and Reigate, which currently have two fire engines each would both lose an engine, with the engine from Epsom, the most densely populated part of the county, being relocated to Burgh Heath by summer 2014 - to redistribute services more equally and "create a chain of single-fire-engine stations through Epsom and Ewell, and Reigate and Banstead".

Although the average time taken for a first fire engine to attend an incident in Epsom would increase by a minute to just over six minutes, the time for a second engine to arrive would nearly double - from just over six minutes to almost 12 minutes.

In the case of all, bar minor fires, firefighters won't start fighting the fire until the second crew arrives.

With staffing cuts already affecting the availability of engines, many fear that removing the second engine from Epsom will jeopardise lives and property.

Epsom and Ewell councillor, Julie Morris, who raised the proposal as an urgent item at the last full council meeting in December, said despite the sub-zero temperatures "a few brave souls" turned out to show the strength of feeling on the issue.

She said: "We pride ourselves on having good emergency services in this country. We are a growing borough.

"We should be moving toward even better response times, not worse.

"Any reduction in services could mean loss of life. It's as simple as that."

The SFRS' consultation ends on February 1.

To have your say on the plans complete the online questionnaire at surrey-fire.gov.uk/psp; email comments to psp@surreycc.gov.uk; write to: Public Safety Plan Team, Surrey Fire and Rescue Service, Croydon Road, Reigate, Surrey, RH2 0EJ; call 03456 009009.