Controversial plans to route all West Yorkshire 999 fire calls to a regional centre have been dropped by the Government – despite more than £200 million already being spent on the scheme nationwide.
Call centres at Birkenshaw, Bradford, Humberside, North Yorkshire and South Yorkshire were set to replaced by a super-centre in Paragon Business Park, Wakefield, under Labour’s plans to streamline England’s existing 46 local control rooms into nine centres.
They said it would improve the country’s ability to respond to terrorism, large industrial accidents and natural disasters such as flooding.
But since the Fire Control plans were announced five years ago they have been dogged by huge delays and costs have spiralled.
Fire Minister Bob Neill yesterday ended months of speculation over the future of the project and announced that he had reached an agreement with the main contractor, Cassidian, to call a halt to the “troubled project”.
West Yorkshire’s FBU secretary Mark Wilson said: “It has been a long and difficult campaign and we are pleased this decision has been taken to scrap the regional control centres.
“We were among the first to criticise this concept in terms of resilience and delivering the service. As time passed both our arguments were proved right. It is a great decision for public safety, we had severe concerns about closing call centres across the area and creating a new super centre.
“There are about 150 people on duty at our local control centres which would have been reduced to 80 or fewer. All fire services across Yorkshire need to distance themselves from this project immediately as it costing money every minute and in light of the financial climate that money can be better spent elsewhere.
“The danger is what goes on from now. We need to know what is going to happen now. We cannot assume anything. We want each brigade to continue as it is doing mobilising units to their area.”
Mr Neill said cancelling the project was the best outcome for the taxpayer and the fire service. He said over the next few weeks efforts will be made to identify any assets from the project, including the control centre buildings.
The Government will stop funding the project as quickly as possible and will start to consult with fire and rescue services about developing alternative plans.
Mr Neill said: “I know that the uncertainty around the future of this project has been frustrating and unsettling for the fire and rescue community and those closely concerned with their interests. My objective has been to deliver operational certainty for the fire and rescue service and financial certainty for the taxpayer.”
West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Authority said the brigade’s ability to provide a first-class emergency service remained unchanged by the announcement. A spokesman said: “As the fourth-largest fire authority in the UK, and the busiest in the region, we are in a strong position to continue our excellent prevention, protection and response service for the public of West Yorkshire.
“Our highly-skilled and professional control room staff receive over 60,000 emergency calls each year and our firefighters attend in excess of 40,000 incidents across the county. We have confidence in our control and communication capability and in the short-term have invested in the latest technology.”
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