Delay for regional fire control

The planned control room will be at the Cambridge

Plans for new fire control centre for the East of England have been delayed three years, it has been revealed.

The control room in Cambridge, which will deal with emergency calls from Cambs, Suffolk, Norfolk, Essex, Beds and Herts, was announced in 2005.

At the time the government said the central control centre would be up and running by 2008.

But the Fire Brigades Union said it had been revealed that the East of England centre would not open until 2011.

Baroness Andrews, from the department of communities and local government, said - in a parliamentary answer to the leader of Essex County Council Lord Hanningfield - that the "go live" date for the Cambridge centre was May 2011.

The Fire Brigades Union had opposed the plans on the grounds that they would rob control room staff of vital local knowledge.

But the government said the proposal was necessary to modernise the service and would equip the fire service "for the demands of the 21st Century".