New emergency centre opens

Management say the new centre will improve call processing

A £7.2m Tri-Service Emergency Centre was opened on Wednesday.

The centre at Devizes in Wiltshire will house police, fire and ambulance control rooms under one roof.

In May the Fire Brigades' Union (FBU) had voted to take strike action over safety issues and job security at the shared site.

However, the issue was resolved when the union reached an agreement with management.

Tam McFarlan, the FBU's regional secretary, said: "We've been given the guarantees we want - and we will be involved in putting the system into use."

A government spokesperson said: "Joint centres improve working conditions, provide better service to the public and allow better co-ordination between the emergency services."

The combined system will link the emergency services across the county of Wiltshire and co-ordinate responses to emergency calls from a single centre.

Managers of the centre have said the change will improve the processing of 999 calls.