Press release: Fire service cuts bring chaos

Threat of local fire services cuts as regionalisation project flounders

Kevin Davis calls for halt to chaotic government plans for regional fire call centres

Local fire & rescue authorities across the South West face the prospect of making cuts to
local fire stations or increasing the fire levy on council tax, warned Kevin Davis,
Conservative Parliamentary Candidate for Yeovil. Major problems have been exposed with
the Labour Government’s plans for the regionalisation of the fire services.
Labour Ministers are currently pushing ahead with plans to replace England’s 46 local fire
control rooms with 9 regional control rooms in each government office region. This project
is known as FiReControl. The Somerset control office (based in Taunton) will be replaced
by a new office which will cover the enormous area of Avon, Cornwall, Devon, Dorset,
Gloucestershire, Somerset and Wiltshire.

· Escalating costs of fire restructuring: The draft business case last year admitted
that the set-up costs of the project were already £400 million over its £1 billion
national budget. The Fire Brigades Union has recently estimated that £278 million is
being spent on management consultants, regional project directors, “change coordinators”,
project assurance directors, PR staff, civil servants, and agency staff, to
handle the restructuring.
· Local fire services face cuts: Whilst the Government has pledged to fund centrally
the increased running costs for the regional control centres, these payments are only
for three years. This leaves the prospect that local fire authorities will have to pick up
the bill - through cuts to other services or via increasing the fire precept on council tax.
The recent regional business case admits that “additional efficiencies and/or revenue
generating” will be needed. In May, the Government instructed new Regional
Management Boards to deliver more “sharing of functions at a regional or sub-regional
level” to deliver “efficiencies.” This raises the prospect that local fire stations face cuts
– imposed at a regional level – to pay for the flawed regionalisation process.
· Fire service regionalisation cancelled in Scotland: The SNP-led administration in
Scotland cancelled Labour’s plans for the regionalisation of Scottish fire control room in
December. Yet Scotland is still going ahead with IT and infrastructure improvements
such as digital radios, GPS and interoperability with other emergency services, proving
that regionalisation is not needed to adopt new technologies to improve resilience.
· Leaked letter reveals chaos in government: A leaked letter from the head of the
new South West Regional Fire Control company to Ministers reveals widespread
discontent about the Government’s plans. He warns that local fire & rescue authorities
will not voluntarily submit to the Government’s regionalisation of the fire service. He
criticises delays in the project, leading to “immense frustration” and “profound
disappointment”. Ministers are told that “confidence amongst the company directors,
our hard working officers and, we suspect, fire authorities is now rock bottom.” A
cross-party Select Committee has already sounded the alarm that “there is no evidence
to suggest any overall saving” and “we are unconvinced that the Government can offer
the assurance of maintained or improved service quality resulting from the FiReControl
project”.

Kevin Davis commented:

“The Labour Government’s expensive plans for the regionalisation of the fire control
services are in chaos. The shambolic project is already late, is £400 million over budget
and is making minuscule costs savings in the South West. As we move towards
implementation costs will spiral further. I worry that Yeovil residents are going to get less
service from a mammoth call centre than they currently get. We should be putting services
closer to the community, not centralising.”

“Labour Ministers should follow the example of Scotland and dump these cuts to local fire
services. There are better ways to improve our fire services than creating distant call
centres based on the arbitrary regional government boundaries.”