Fire control centre row deepens

Avon Fire Authority says the Lansdown site should be considered

The row over the South West regional fire centre has deepened after Avon Fire Authority said it would not voluntarily hand over 999 services.

It says it has a site at Lansdown which has not been properly examined.

The government wants fire services in Dorset, Wiltshire, Gloucestershire, Avon, Somerset, Devon and Cornwall to be run from one control room.

The site of the new centre was to be revealed before the end of February, but the announcement has been delayed.

Nuclear bunker

Terry Walker, the Avon Fire Authority's chairman, told BBC News: "This is a waste of money for the South West. We already have this facility.

"We feel we already have a control centre in Lansdown that could take on the whole South West.

"The government never really explored this properly, saying it was too small. It's got a nuclear bunker underneath it that the government built in 1953."

We cannot accept individual fire and rescue authorities pulling out of the process Nick Raynsford MP

He added that although the government would initially stump up the money for the centre, taxpayers would be paying for something that was "already there".

John Drake, from the Fire Brigades' Union (FBU), said: "We have long been campaigning against the government's madcap scheme to regionalise emergency fire control.

"We believe that the government's plans will not save one single life, or save one single penny of taxpayer's money. In fact, the scheme could prove disastrous."

'Grossly unfair'

In reply to Avon Fire Authority, Nick Raynsford MP, Minister for Local and Regional Government, said Lansdown was not big enough.

"[Lansdown] did not make it onto the short list on the grounds of failing the mandatory requirement of site size.

"There is no chance of Lansdown being reconsidered or added to the shortlist, nor will we halt this procurement process and start again.

"It would be grossly unfair to change the criteria now, midway through the procurement process," the letter said.

Mr Raynsford added: "We cannot accept individual fire and rescue authorities pulling out of the process."