This week, new Fire Minister Parmjit Dhanda has the best chance he will ever have to rethink the government’s proposal to reduce the number of control centres for emergency calls to the fire service from 46 to nine, the Fire Brigades Union said today. These are the centres to which the 999 operators pass emergency calls for the fire service.

“Mr Dhanda, who is also the MP for Gloucester, should listen this week to the fire chief in his own constituency” FBU general secretary Matt Wrack said today.  Gloucester chief fire officer Terry Standing said this week that his brigade’s response to recent flooding would have been hampered if the new system had been in place.

Under government proposals, the fire control centre in Gloucester, covering Gloucestershire, will be replaced by a big centre in Taunton covering seven counties.

“This is a window of opportunity for Mr Dhanda” Mr Wrack said today. “He has the evidence of the professionals involved that the new system will make the fire service less effective. He is a new fire minister who can take a fresh look. And we have a new Prime Minister who has shown himself able and willing to show leadership and revisit positions previously held by the administration.

“This is the best chance we will ever have for a rethink and a more rational policy. I urge Parmjit Dhanda not to throw it away. I urge him to listen to the people in his own constituency. He should listen to his own chief fire officer, Terry Standing. He should listen to the firefighters under Mr Standing’s command.”

Mr Standing’s comments reflected what the FBU has been saying. He told the Gloucestershire Citizen this week: “We won vital battles because we were able to put the right resources in place at the right time.  We used our professional judgement. My concern is when we get a regional control, that ability is somewhat removed from us. It’s that ability to work locally and know your patch and people.”

The influential local paper, the Gloucestershire Citizen, continues to run a vigourous campaign to keep Gloucester’s own regional control room, a campaign which has the overwhelming support of its readers.

Both firefighter and fire control staff in Gloucester support the chief fire officer on this. A typical view comes in a comment sent to the Gloucestershire Citizen: “My daughter works for Fire Control… [During the flood] they used their local knowledge to bring appliances in from other areas and guide them… People came in when they were off duty to help as they lived locally – she and her colleagues won’t be able to do that when fire control is in Taunton.”

Other parts of the country will also be worse off under the new system. The proposed new south east regional control centre is to be based in Hampshire, and will cover Hampshire, Berkshire, Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Kent, and East and West Sussex.

This £1 billion scheme will reduce the fire service’s 46 control centres to just nine.  It involves making 571 staff redundant – nearly a third of the total.

“In firefighting, technology is no substitute for people” said Mr Wrack. “In the end, an emergency call has to be dealt with by a human being. Every person in our control centres has been fully stretched during this crisis. If the current proposal had been implemented at the time of the crisis calls would have gone unanswered.

“And part of the reason they have been able to deal with calls quickly and efficiently is their local knowledge, which would be lost in the proposed new regional centres.”

Further information:

Francis Beckett (FBU national press officer)
020 8349 9194