Union slams Taunton 999 centre

7:53pm Wednesday 23rd July 2008

THE top fire brigade union man in Somerset has called for the proposed regional control centre in Taunton to be axed.

Devon and Somerset FBU secretary Trevor French says the facility, in Blackbrook, will not make the predicted savings, will cost more than envisaged, is years overdue and has still not been trialled.

The premises will replace individual 999 centres from Gloucestershire to Cornwall and is due to start operating in October next year.

Mr French said: "At the beginning of July, the Government finally admitted the massive savings it originally predicted for the project will not materialise, with an annual saving for the whole of the South-West of just £64,000.

"In the meantime, development costs for the nine regional control centres proposed to replace the current 46 local fire controls in the country have risen from £100million to nearly £1.5billion.

"Even this huge amount doesn't include a large amount of extra out of scope' work that existing controls currently undertake and will still need to do even with regional controls.

"This project is now years overdue and has still not been operationally tested."

Mr French said England and Wales should follow the lead of Scotland, which has ditched the idea of regional centres "before the current farce becomes a disaster".

He added that claims that satnav and global positioning systems in fire engines would enhance the service were correct, but denied it was a good reason for the new centres.

Last week, Jerry Willmott, who chairs the company set up to see the project through, told the County Gazette the centre in Taunton would be advantageous to people in the region.