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THE SCOTTISH Government has announced that it will not reduce the number of control rooms in Scotland. Instead, plans to enhance resilience of control rooms will be determined following a consultation with stakeholders.
Following a review, the Scottish Government has decided that it will take no action centrally to reduce the number of fire control rooms. Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill explained: ‘The view of a substantial majority of those who run the control rooms – councillors, chief fire officers and other staff – is that we should stick with the status quo [of eight control rooms across Scotland].’
However, the Government is preparing to consult with stakeholders on minimum standards of resilience for control rooms as it moves to invest £50m in the next three years to equip brigades with a state-of-the-art digital incident communications system. ‘This is an issue which national and local government and the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) and other staff representatives need to consider together,’ added Mr MacAskill.
‘Government is prepared to work with fire and rescue authorities on a strategy for achieving the required standard, including possible funding issues – but on the basis that operational decisions are for local government, subject to compliance with the Fire (Scotland) Act 2005.’
Minister for Community Safety, Fergus Ewing, said: ‘Good government is about listening and trusting those closest to the frontline – and also about making decisions. This issue has been clouded in uncertainty for too long.’
The decision in Scotland prompted calls for the Government in England to urgently re-think plans to close all 46 emergency fire controls and move to one control for each region. The FBU argues that the so-called FireControl project in England is ‘now running years late, costs are ten times the original estimate of £100m, and it is placing enormous burdens on the fire service’.
FBU general secretary Matt Wrack said: ‘Scotland has looked into the abyss and quite rightly stepped back. They will now get a better and more resilient system which is much cheaper and quicker than that planned for England’.
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