Firefighters and ancillary workers are opposed to Government plans to close Bradford's fire control centre - and replace it with a base in Wakefield.

A national survey for the Fire Brigades' Union reveals that only three per cent of fire service employees support the move to replace 46 control rooms in England with nine new ones, at a cost of about £1 billion.

From 2009, Bradford people who dial 999 will be put through to a control centre nearly 20 miles away. Critics fear valuable time could be lost while operators unfamiliar with the city direct fire crews to blazes - putting lives at risk.

Emergency calls for the Bradford district are dealt with at West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service's headquarters at Birkenshaw. Most of the 52 staff employed there will be asked to travel to Wakefield. Mick Sutcliffe, Fire Brigades' Union chairman for West Yorkshire, said: "The contact centre operators we have in Bradford all believe that the existing arrangements we have for taking fire calls are perfect. But the Government seems hell-bent on changing things and building nine regional control centres throughout the UK.

"Calls for Bradford, and the rest of Yorkshire and Humberside, would be dealt with from Wakefield. From a West Yorkshire point-of-view, the contact centre we run is one of the cheapest in Britain. Moving the centre to Wakefield will also see the local knowledge of Bradford staff lost."

A poll of 2,500 fire service personnel nationwide revealed that 95 per cent do not believe the new control rooms will improve the safety of firefighters and a similar number said the Government should scrap the plans now.

Mr Sutcliffe added firefighters throughout Bradford were also concerned about Government plans to modernise the fire service's pension scheme.

He said: "New employees joining after April will be part of a different scheme, which could see them working five years longer than current firefighters for the same pension."

Addressing the concerns around the new fire control centre in Wakefield, Fire Service minister Jim Fitzpatrick, who was visiting the Birkenshaw control centre yesterday, said the new complex, set to cost about £1.1 million, would better deal with terrorist attacks or national disasters.

Mr Fitzpatrick said: "We are investing in nine regional control centres better equipped with the latest technology. The new control centres, including Wakefield, will improve the system with regards to the public. The firefighters themselves will also be better prepared and better-equipped when they arrive at a fire."

Mr Fitzpatrick, a former London-based firefighter, said Wakefield was selected because of its "accessibility, demographics, lack of vulnerability to threats such as flooding and suitability for development".

About pension concerns, he added: "Across the public sector pensions are under review."