EMERGENCY FIRECONTROL: EARLY DAY MOTION 805

The union has written to all MPs in England, chief fire officers, chairs and clerks of fire authorities enclosing independent and objective report prepared by consultants from the Institute of Public Finance for the Fire Brigades Union. Their report related to the Department for Communities and Local Government FireControl Project which aims to close all 46 brigade emergency fire control rooms in England and replace them with 9 regional controls.

The Report raised a number of issues including:

• more work is needed on key areas of the draft plan to close all local 46 emergency fire control rooms in England and open 9 regional controls.
•  “revisiting” whether regional controls are the best option,
•  greater justification for opting for 9 regional control rooms rather than a higher figure.
• the levels of savings needs to be looked at again, based on the latest information.
• The report questions whether the Government plans will result in overall savings.

The report also says there is confusion as to the true ‘vision’ of the project and that a lack of accessibility and transparency in both Business Cases “leaves a lot to be desired”. It goes on to warn that “if savings are adversely affected” then “the validity of the business case and how it meets its key objectives (including affordability and value for money) could be called into question.”

It warns that any changes to savings and costs could have a “significant” knock-on effect on that part of the Council Tax raised by fire authorities.

The focus for the review by IPF was to appraise the draft plan, and their review did not extend to taking on board any further evidence that Fire Authorities themselves may have available since the original data upon which the regional cases were made.

The Fire Brigades Union do not believe that major decisions should be made about this project without a rigorous and independent review of the Final Business Case.  Early Day Motion 805 calls for a full independent assessment of the Final Business case to be carried out before any further major decisions are made.

Lobby Your MP

A letter which you can easily send to your local MP, and which you can amend, is available at the following link:

http://www.fbu.org.uk/aboutus/political/epetition.php