A senior firefighter was demoted and eight of his colleagues officially warned today for refusing to hand out safety leaflets at a gay pride march.

The nine officers were rapped by Strathclyde Fire and Rescue (SFR) after disobeying orders during the Pride Scotia rally in June.

Fire service managers have also ordered the group, from Glasgow’s Cowcaddens station, to undergo intensive "diversity training" as part of their punishment.

The punishment sees one of the men involved, a watch manager, reduced to the rank of crew manager, losing an estimated £5,000 in salary. The others have all received official written warnings about their behaviour.

Fire chiefs deliberated about the matter for several days after speaking to four of the men during a final hearing on Monday this week. It followed another disciplinary session last month when the other five officers were questioned.

In a strongly worded statement, SFR said the officers’ refusal to hand out the leaflets represented a "fundamental breach of their core responsibilities", adding that they could not "pick and choose" who they offered safety advice to.

The statement said: "Firefighters are well aware that fire prevention education and spreading the fire safety message is not a minor part of their job - it ranks alongside firefighting as a core, statutory duty.

"Strathclyde Fire and Rescue gives particular priority to community fire safety because of the urgent need to drive down casualty and fatality rates amongst our communities which still rank as the highest in the UK."

It added: "Firefighters cannot, and will not, pick and choose to whom they offer fire safety advice. Strathclyde Fire and Rescue has a responsibility to protect every one of the 2.3 million people it serves, irrespective of race, religion or sexuality."

Fire chiefs said that the nine, members of Cowcaddens’ Red Watch, had now accepted that they should have performed their duties at the festival. "Strathclyde Fire and Rescue now regards this issue as closed," the employer added.

Some of the officers involved argued at the time of the gay march that it would be embarrassing for them to turn up in uniform to the event, while others claimed it would contradict their moral beliefs.

Under the disciplinary proceedings they could have faced the sack for disobeying orders. The Fire Brigades Union in Scotland refused to comment on today’s outcome, saying it would be waiting until the individual members had been contacted.

But its regional chairman, Roddy Robertson, did say that one option for the men would be to appeal against the verdict.

He added: "With any disciplinary outcome, it could be subject to an appeal. But we have to wait until the members have been contacted.

"We would be unable to comment until the disciplinary process has been exhausted. If the members don’t wish to proceed, then we can make a comment."

Before the hearings started last month, Mr Robertson admitted the issue had been "highly controversial".

The gay rights campaign group Stonewall Scotland immediately welcomed the verdict, saying that public servants such as firefighters were for the benefit of the whole community.

The group's director, Calum Irving, said: "You cannot pick and mix based on the prejudice of employees, especially when you have got publicly-funded employees. I don’t think it’s particularly controversial to ask public servants to do their job.

"Lesbian and gay people do pay their taxes as well. The comparison is that if these firefighters had refused to go to a mosque, then people would been outraged."

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