Fire chief hits out at ‘botched’ 999 shake-up (From Gazette)

Fire chief hits out at ‘botched’ 999 shake-up

3:27pm Friday 2nd April 2010 in Health

THE boss of Essex’s fire brigade has hit out at the Government’s botched plan to axe the county’s emergency control room.

Chief fire officer David Johnson, of Essex County Fire and Rescue Service, said he had serious concerns over the project, which would see Essex emergency calls dealt with in Cambridgeshire.

He said taxpayers would be paying more for the new regional centre instead of making savings as planned.

Mr Johnson’s comments came as a report from a select committee of MPs branded the scheme “inadequately planned, poorly executed and badly managed”.

Mr Johnson said: “This is not the first time I have voiced my concerns over the cost of the project to fire and rescue services and the continuing delays.

“When the project began, we were promised considerable savings and enhanced technical capabilities and resilience.

“But it is now obvious that in Essex, we will be paying more and our control system will deliver nothing beyond what we already have.”

Plans to axe the country’s 46 fire control rooms, which handle emergency calls, were first announced in 2003 and the Government planned to replace the 46 centres with nine regional centres.

The Essex control room in Hutton, Brentwood,- would be replaced by the Cambridgeshire centre , which will also take calls from five other services.

But the multimillion-pound scheme, which has already hit delays, has attracted fierce opposition from MPs and the Fire Brigades Union, who claim it would put lives at risk as the local knowledge of call handlers would be lost.