Fire centre plan set to be scrapped

Welsh fire authorites will decide control centres' future

Controversial plans which would leave Wales with just one fire control centre are set to be scrapped after the government backed away from the proposals.

Home Office Minister Mike O'Brien gave the green light for the three existing centres to continue.

He said the future of the service would now be decided by Welsh fire authorities - all of which oppose the changes.

Mr O'Brien's move came after the Welsh Secretary, Paul Murphy, intervened to warn of widespread opposition to the proposals.

Earlier on Wednesday, a meeting of the committeee that oversees the organisation of fire services failed to resolve the issue.

"The authorities in Wales have to decide the right way forward for them after properly reviewing the options and considering the report.

Mike O'Brien

Mr O'Brien has also agreed to consider offering Wales a seat on the Central Fire Brigades Advisory Committee.

MPs fighting the proposals said they had ignored the need for local knowledge.

Many Welsh place names are duplicated - in the former county of Clwyd alone there are 40 villages with the same name.

Mr O'Brien said: "The authorities in Wales have to decide the right way forward for them after properly reviewing the options and considering the report."

Consultation

"The Welsh fire authorities have only recently changed their control arrangements to accommodate a reduction from eight to three brigades."

"They may conclude that now is not the time to change again," Mr O'Brien added.

Wednesday's meeting of the Central Fire Brigade Advistory committee was the first stage of the consultation process on the reorganisation of control centres in England and Wales.

But there had been concern expressed that there is no Welsh representation on the committee.

Oppose the plan

Last month, leaders of the Fire Brigades' Union in Wales unanimously decided to oppose the plans.

Wales had eight Fire Control Centres until 1996 when the number was cut to three.

The latest plan involved the closure of the North and Mid and West service control centres at Rhyl and Carmarthen.

Major shake-up

Operations would then have been centred at Pontyclun in south Wales.

Mike Smith of the Fire Brigades' Union had said that the proposal flew in the face of Home Office policy to ensure each control centre should deal with no more than 20,000 calls a year.

He pointed out that the south Wales centre currently handled 57,000 calls a year, while the north centre dealt with 20,000 calls and the mid and west centre around 27,000.

Plans to combine the three were ridiculous, Mr Smith said.