Firefighters in the north west of England have passed a vote of no confidence in a control room set to open near Warrington that would deal with emergency calls for four brigades.
The centre was originally part of the infamous ‘Fire Control’ project, which would have seen the replacement of 46 control centres across the country with nine — but was dropped after amounting costs of almost half a billion pounds.
The fire services of Greater Manchester, Cheshire, Cumbria, and Lancashire subsequently took over the project, but local firefighters say that poor staffing levels and a reduction on local knowledge could cost lives.
Gary Keary, Fire Brigades Union secretary for Manchester, said: “The new control centre will have a total of about 45 operators — we had a similar number just to cover Greater Manchester. There are severe concerns about this centre.
“There is also the issue of local knowledge which can be essential as people may not be at their calmest or coherent when giving information about an incident.”
The motion read: “We believe [the control centre] will be unable to provide the same level of service to Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service and also to the public of Greater Manchester.
“This is based on: the perceived lack of training, our belief there remains unresolved data issues on the mobilising system, ongoing unresolved HR issues, and concerns about the number of staff being employed and the shift systems.”
