Local Government Association votes to oppose regional fire controls - Jeremy Hilton votes to save TriService Centre

5.22.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Fri 18th Sep 2009

The Government's controversial plans to close Gloucestershire's TriService fire control and replace it with a regional fire control in Taunton received a blow today at a meeting of the Local Government Association's (LGA) Fire Services Management Committee.

Leading fire authority councillors, including Gloucester councillor, Jeremy Hilton voted to oppose the regional fire control centres. Until now, the LGA had supported the government's plan to replace England's 45 fire controls with eight regional control centres.

Liberal Democrats successfully moved an amendment asking LGA officers to develop alternative options in the event of project failure.

Gloucester Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate Jeremy Hilton said:

"This ill-fated project was doomed from the start. The Government have not listened to the many fire service leaders who warned that the project was unlikely to succeed. In Gloucestershire, we already have a modern fire control at the Tri Service Centre - we don't need to move to Taunton.

"The Regional Control Centres project has consistently failed to meet deadline after deadline, and is millions over-budget. We can upgrade our TriService fire control to take in the latest communication technologies at a fraction of the cost."

"These latest delays mean that regional controls will not handle a single emergency call or mobilise a single fire engine until 2011, at the earliest, whilst all the centres would not be up and running until the end of 2012.

"Labour has given us eight massive empty buildings that the LGA is now against. It is a scandalous waste of public funds to close our superb TriService fire control and replace it with an unwanted regional control 70 miles away in Somerset.

"That's why the committee today passed a Lib-Dem amendment asking officers to prepare a contingencies paper setting out some alternative options in the event of project failure."

Liberal Democrat, Independent and Conservative councillors voted to change LGA policy and oppose regional control centres, whilst Labour councillors defended the government's plan to move Gloucestershire's fire control to Somerset.

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