James Duddridge, Member of Parliament for Rochford and Southend East has today received an answer from the Government on the timescale for the completion of Regional Fire Control rooms.
James opposes the Government’s plans to replace England’s 46 local fire control rooms with nine regional control rooms. Under the Government proposals, there will be only one control room for the East of England, which will be located in Cambridge. Currently, local fire services in Essex use the local control room in Brentwood.
In a written answer, the Minister, Sadiq Khan, has said that the Regional control rooms will be in place by Spring 2012, five months later than originally planned.
Speaking today, James said:
“I wanted to ask the Government about the timescale of this plan as we have known about it for years but nothing seems to be happening. The dates for completion keep getting pushed back. It is only fair that local people and the local fire service are aware of when these plans will put in place. I will also be asking the Minister when the completion of the East of England control room is expected.”
“I am totally opposed to this proposal. I believe that the decision to move fire prevention and fire fighting away from local control is foolish and is also potentially very dangerous. It is ludicrous to think that someone in a control centre in Cambridge will be giving information to fire services in Essex.”
Cllr Ann Holland, Vice Chair of Essex Fire Authority said,
“The ‘original’ planned date was for 2007 with Essex to go live in 2009!
The proposal now is that the six fire brigades in the region are going to be phased into the Regional Control Room and Essex is due in Winter 2011.
Obviously we are concerned that there could be further delays which would then take the move very close to the Olympics. To ensure this does not happen, Essex Fire Authority has agreed that we will not move to a Regional Control Centre during 2012.”
3 March 2009