Control

Cumbria’s fire crews have called for a re-think of moves to axe Cumbria’s 999 fire control and farm the work out to Cheshire. The union says the plans are ill-thought out, a bad deal for council tax payers and could increase risk to the public and local fire crews. Staff were told of the plans on 6...

FBU regional secretary Ricky Matthews said: “Those who work in Buckinghamshire fire service command and control centre have been told their work is to be outsourced to Cambridgeshire with the loss of 20 posts. It is very unhelpful that this was communicated to many of them by letters delivered to...

I wrote this for the Guardian, published today. John Prescott’s regional fire control project was a calamitous failure, yet the real lessons have still not been learned and the present government is making the same mistakes. Around half a billion pounds of taxpayers’ money was wasted on Prescott’s...

The Fire Brigades Union has dismissed John Prescott’s remarks on Radio 4 this morning, blaming firefighters and civil servants for the failure of the FiReControl project. Matt Wrack, FBU general secretary said: “Only a minister who doesn’t know what’s going on blames others. Prescott has no excuse...

The Fire Brigades Union has warned that the lessons of the FiReControl project have not been learned and the same mistakes are being repeated on a local level by the current government. The union welcomed the Public Accounts Committee report on the failure of the FiReControl project, but warned that...