Regional fire centre plans ‘risk lives’
Plans to replace local fire engines with regional control centres have received short shrift from opposition parties, who warn they will put lives at risk.
The criticism comes as the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) today named seven of the nine centres, which will replace 46 local fire stations across the country.
ODPM minister Jim Fitzpatrick said the new centres were vital to enable the fire service to cope with large scale emergencies such as the London bombings.
But Conservatives warned the scheme would put people’s safety in the hands of 999 operators who were based miles away and had no knowledge of the local area.
Announcing the sites today, Mr Fitzpatrick said: “There is a compelling need to modernise and rationalise the control rooms in England, as part of the overall modernisation agenda.
“In the post-9/11 world, and in the wake of the events of July 7th, we need control centres that are resilient enough to deal with a terrorist attack or any natural disaster.”
He said the regional control centre that already exists in London – which will be integrated into the national network by the Olympics in 2012 – showed the success of the centres in dealing with large scale emergencies.
The Chief Fire Officers Association (CFOA), with whom the ODPM has been working on the project, welcomed today’s announcement as a “significant milestone”.
“Establishing this national network of nine centres will be a huge step in the modernisation of the service. It will provide a better service for the public and will greatly improve resilience, particularly important in the light of recent events,” said president Tom Carroll.
Shadow local government secretary Caroline Spelman insisted, however, that the £72 million cost of the scheme would be better spent on frontline services and warned that local people would suffer.
“Civil resilience will be damaged by placing ‘all the eggs in one basket’. If the regional centre is forced offline by a disaster or attack, the whole emergency response will go down across a massive geographical area,” she said.
“Conservatives believe that fire and rescue authorities must remain accountable to local people, rather than to unwanted regional quangos. John Prescott’s regional empire building is playing politics with fire safety.”
Lib Dem local government spokesman Sarah Teather reiterated this point, saying there could be “dire consequences for public safety” if the programme went wrong.
She added: “Today’s announcement linked the Fire Control project, which has been in the pipeline for years, to the bombings of July 7th.
“This is shameful political opportunism, and must not blind us to the fact that the regional system could undermine, rather than reinforce, public safety.”
