My apologies Jaycbrf I should have explained my self more, then I might have got a more constructive help than stating the obvious which I have already tried.
I am already using firebug and google chrome developer tools and have located a number of pieces of CSS code which are linked to the menu however despite trying to change these. There is not one element that is controlling the overall size or at least not that I can find of the area actually allocated to the menu.
I wondered if some one might have managed to work out the combination need to get both the height of the menu reduced but leave menu it’s self in the same position. Reducing the amount of unused space.