The possibility of combining forces was introduced as a last minute amendment to next year’s budget for the Royal Berkshire Fire Authority by Reading borough councillor Paul Gittings.

At the end of the Royal Berkshire Fire Authority meeting at the brigade headquarters in Calcot, Cllr Gittings argued that some of the £2m transition fund available should be spent on a feasibility study into a merger of Berkshire, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire’s fire services.

But denouncing his comments as “inappropriate” and “electioneering” the majority of members at Monday’s meeting voted against the amendment.

Cllr Gittings said: “We remain in challenging times but we have benefited from a windfall in commercial rates from a well-known telecoms company which has had the benefit of putting a generous amount into our coffers.

“I propose that a proportion of this transition fund is used for a feasibility study into a full merger of the Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire brigades for a combined Thames Valley service.”

Back in 2012 the three counties agreed to merge their control room facilities in the Thames Valley Fire Control Service, based at Calcot.

Cllr Paul Bryant, of West Berkshire Council, said: “I have a measure of sympathy for this idea. There is a lot happening between authorities with our control room but whether that needs a merger is something we can look at in the future – I think we need to go much further down the road.”

Others however were more critical of Cllr Gittings’ timing, believing that a budget discussion was the wrong place to bring up such an idea.

Cllr Emma Webster, of West Berkshire Council, said: “It is disappointing that something so important has come across in this way.”

Chairman of the Royal Berkshire Fire Authority Cllr Colin Dudley, of Bracknell Forest Council, summed up his objection to the idea as members excluded the amendment before passing the original budget plans.

He said: “Quite frankly this is a ludicrous amendment. This is a budget meeting, this is where we are talking about how much the people of Berkshire are paying for their fire services. It is not a time for electioneering.”