IT HAS cost an estimated £2m of taxpayers' money, been through a tribunal, via government and to the second highest court in the land.

But Hampshire fire brigade's five-year battle to sack four firefighters has got nowhere - and the four men are today another step closer to returning to work.

The High Court dramatically ruled yesterday that Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service could no longer continue with its bid to overturn a government decision that it was wrong to sack the four.

They now have just one chance left - to try and appeal against this decision - but legal experts say they are unlikely to be given permission to do so.

Only then will brigade bosses finally be forced to hold their hands up and admit defeat.

Legal experts say the extraordinary feud is a one-off in legal history, with no public authority ever before "so flagrantly refusing to comply with decisions".

HFRS has even gone as high as the Court of Appeal to get backing for their bid, but failed.

For the former red watch colleagues Barry Kearley, Steve Dunbar, Bernie Ross and Richard Thoroughgood, suspended in 1999 over claims of insubordination and then sacked a year later, it is a bittersweet victory. Steve, of Basingstoke, said: "We expected this outcome. We were told the brigade had no chance of winning - just like all the other times.

"We are pleased every time the brigade are turned down, but I just hope that this really will be the end of it. It should be, but I'm never absolutely sure."

He said that there would be many issues to thrash out before he stepped back into a fire station, but added: "That's always been the end goal of this - to go back to work as a firefighter."

He is also owed about £80,000 in salary since 2001, as are the other three firefighters, but HFRS have not yet paid up.

In courtroom 27 of London's High Court, after two hours of legal argument, Mr Justice Silber decided that the brigade could not continue with their bid to overturn the ruling made by John Prescott's office last year and said he will explain his decision in court next week. At each stage of the journey through the five-year feud, top officials have said the firefighters should be allowed back to work.

Each time, Hampshire fire bosses refused. In this latest challenge yesterday, brought by the brigade, Richard Jones QC, for HFRS, said Mr Prescott had taken too long to make his findings - and had then explained them in just "one short paragraph".

He said of the decision: "We don't know how he made it, who made it, or when it was made."

Mr Justice Silber rejected the argument.

Richard Arthur, the firefighters' legal representative from London firm Thompsons, said: "I have never come across a case where a public authority so flagrantly refuses to comply with a decision, first of all from a government office and then from a court. It's quite extraordinary for a public authority to behave in this way."

He said the brigade could appeal against this week's decision, but believes it would have no chance of winning. Brigade spokesman Mike Gates said: "The authority is disappointed by the decision of the Appeal Court."

He said chief fire officer John Bonney and the Authority "regret that they have been forced into this protracted and complex process", and added that it had a duty to act in the best interests of the public as well as its employees. Mr Gates disputed the estimated legal fee bill of £2m, but refused to give the real cost.

He added: "HFRS will meet with Fire Authority members to discuss the implications of this appeal."