Jeremy Hilton's statement to Select Committee on TriService Centre

The House of Commons Communities and Local Government Select Committee is to hold a short inquiry (early February 2010) into the government project to establish regional fire control centres.

The deadline for written submissions was the 8th of January and Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate for Gloucester, Cllr. Jeremy Hilton has written to give evidence as to why he opposes the closure of Gloucestershire's TriService fire control.

Jeremy Hilton said: "As the cabinet member fire, I was present when we invited Prince Charles to open the TriService Centre in 2003. We built the centre on time and on budget. The TriService Centre did us proud during the devastating floods that hit the county in 2007. Having all three 999 control rooms together in one building has improved inter-service co-operation and intelligence. It is madness to close the fire control and move it to Taunton."

Ends...

This is Jeremy Hilton's actual written statement to the House of Commons Select Committee

1. I was the Cabinet Member for Fire in Gloucestershire when we opened the TriService Centre in 2003. Prince Charles was the guest of honour at the official opening.

2. I have consistently opposed the closing of our TriService Fire Control and moving it 70 miles away into the regional control centre at Taunton. The RCC takes away local knowledge, which in my view undermines resilience.

3. The TriService Centre has highlighted the benefits of inter-service co-operation in Gloucestershire and the minute-by-minute command of major incidents. Something that will be damaged by a move to the RCC.

4. Currently the chief fire office can talk to his control staff face to face. In future, he will have to pick up the phone to speak to his control staff - what nonsense.

5. The TriService Centre was a pioneering project supported by the government with a £2.6m Invest to Save grant.

6. We opened the TriService on time and under budget, with a saving of £209K on its original budget of £6.4m.

7. Inter-service co-operation and intelligence has improved since the TriService Centre opened as all three 999-control rooms sit side by side. Concurrent dispatch has improved.

8. The ability to deal with major emergencies has been enhanced as was shown by the superb way in which the emergency services worked together during the devastating floods that hit Gloucestershire in 2007.

9. Gloucestershire has been given a green flag for dealing with floods by the Audit Commission (9th Dec 2009) in its report on the Comprehensive Area Assessment for the county.

10. It only takes 5 minutes to set up set up silver command, which operates within the TriService Centre adjacent to the three 999-control rooms.

11. Gold command operates from the new police HQ just 100 meters away.

12. The moving of the 999 fire control to Taunton will undermine the close working relationship built up between the three blue light services in Gloucestershire since the TriService Centre opened in 2003.

13. Technical developments have been put on hold because of the Regional Control Centre project. The communications infrastructure (radio communications) is now extremely fragile due to the excessive delays incurred through this national project.

14. The RCC offers no communication advantages that cannot be plugged and played from the TriService Centre. The TriService Centre can be fully compatible with data and voice communications over the new FireLink system.

15. At the LGA Fire Service Management Committee (Nov 2009) I asked Roger Hargreaves from CLG whether it was technically possible to link the TriService Centre and other fire controls for both data and voice communications with the new FireLink communications system - he said yes.

16. The reason why we have the RCC project is more about establishing regional fire authorities than improving resilience. Regional fire authorities have now been abandoned and so should the RCC project.

17. In my view, the government should have from the start, designed new fire control communications architecture (FireLink) and then asked all fire authorities to upgrade their fire controls rooms and link into FireLink so that all control rooms were modernised.

18. Financial inducement could have been given to encourage joint control rooms where fire authorities were willing to combine. Similar to the grant we got for the TriService Centre.

19. The RCC project has been a failure; it is late, over budget and full of technical problems. Only a fool would risk handing over 999 calls to the Taunton RCC and close down our excellent TriService fire control.

20. In Gloucestershire, we should stick with our TriService fire control, as we know we can trust it to serve the people of the county.

21. On 30th October 2003, Ian McCartney, then Minister without Portfolio wrote to Nick Raynsford the fire minister, following a visit to the TriService Centre, to ask, "whether there was scope in future plans to retain and develop the TriService Centre."

22. On 13th of November 2003, I wrote to Nick Raynsford the fire minister to invite him to visit the TriService Centre to see for himself how well it worked. He never came.

23. The Mott MacDonald report commissioned by the ODPM - 'The Future of the Fire Service Control Rooms,' clearly states that the analysis of the TriService Project was too early in the project and should be allowed to proceed. The report recommends that "a medium to long term plan is derived that considers the integration of the of the three ISB projects (TriService Centres) into the regional arrangements at a future point."

24. On the 24th May 2004, I met Nick Raynsford in London to brief him on the TriService Centre and to ask him to consider plugging the TriService Centre into the new network of fire controls as Mott MacDonald had suggested - I remain disappointed that he failed to act on this request.

25. The Audit Commission in a 2005 report on the TriService Centre said that the TriService Centre had significantly exceeded expectations in improving public safety, improving safety of employees; and cost savings.

26. The Audit Commission warned that removal of the fire control would have a major negative impact on the project, both financially and operationally.

27. I sit on the LGA Fire Service Management Committee and at our meeting on September 2009; the committee decided that is was against the principle of the implementation of Regional Control Centres.

28. The FSMC also asked LGA officers to develop alternative options in the event of the RCC failure. It is now time that CLG did the same. I hope the select committee will call for the scrapping of the RCC project.