Responding to the Committee of Public Accounts report into the FiReControl project, in which £482 million of public money was lost in an attempt to restructure emergency control rooms, Matt Wrack, Fire Brigades Union general secretary, said:
“This colossal waste of taxpayer’s money must not be allowed to happen again, and the Committee’s report includes some very sound recommendations. The whole fiasco has demonstrated that the FBU was right all along but for too long we were the sole voice raising concerns about this project.
“Years after Firecontrol was abandoned, the taxpayer is still paying for buildings that were built with private money, and money set aside to modernise control centres has been misspent on nonsensical mergers of control regions that are not even geographical neighbours.
“If we’re to protect public safety and national resilience, particularly in case of terrorism or large-scale emergency, we need national support and coordination of control centres – and to include the expertise of control staff themselves in the planning and delivery of services.”
