Cash row on fire centres
Dec 31 2008 by Sam Wood, The Journal
THE Government is spending thousands of pounds on an unused fire control centre in the North East, union leaders claimed.
Fire Brigades Union leaders said £750,000 a month was being spent on nine new centres across the country, which includes one at the Belmont Business Park, near Durham City.
And they claimed that figure was set to rise to more than £1m in the New Year.
Belmont was established as part of a wide-ranging Government plan to introduce regional control centres across the country. The move will cut the current 46 county-based hubs to just nine.
Whitehall is funding the changes, which ministers claim will improve emergency cover and provide the best technology, systems and access to information.
But while the regional bases have already been established, none are operational because the correct computer equipment is yet to be installed.
The Belmont complex was completed in the middle of last year. The hope was that it would be operational in October next year, but it is now scheduled to open in July 2010.
When it finally opens it will replace the existing control centres operated by the Tyne & Wear, Northumberland, County Durham and Cleveland brigades and will be one of the first of a new £380m national network.
Matt Wrack, FBU general secretary, said: “Local authorities are getting just £15m for the massive task of ensuring that arrangements are in place to assess and manage local flood risk.
“Yet the Government is prepared to spend that sum every two years on empty buildings. If this happened in business, someone would be held accountable.”
A Communities and Local Government spokesman said: “New regional control centre buildings are not standing idle.
“They are being fitted out with IT and other equipment, being used for the developing and testing of systems and providing familiarisation and training facilities for fire service staff and elected members.”
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