The FBU has welcomed the announcement of £74 million of central grant funding to upgrade fire service emergency command and control centres. But the union says it is deeply concerned about some mergers, the creation of a regional control in the north west and staff cuts.
The union says it is deeply concerned at the privatisation of London’s control room. The union is calling for a halt to any further mergers or outsourcing until there has been a review of resilience standards for emergency controls.
Sharon Riley, FBU Executive Council member for Control firefighters said: “Fire service command and control centres are central to how the service responds to all incidents including all major emergencies. There are changes being pushed through without proper scrutiny, public consultation or debate.
“The Government is currently consulting on the new National Framework for the fire service and we are pushing for a much more joined up approach to national resilience. The current approach of self-organised control amalgamations will not necessarily deliver improved national resilience.
“It is also clearly not the case that Government funding is increasing the number of people available in controls as the Government has claimed. The mergers mean there are fewer people in emergency controls, in some cases significantly so.
“Our command and control centres are the link between the public and firefighters. We’re not call centres, we are the hub of emergency incident command which is key to delivering a safe and effective service to the public and firefighters.
