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News Date: Monday 25th July 2005

Tim supports South-East Fire Brigade

On a visit to West Sussex Fire Service control centre at Chichester, Tim Loughton MP discussed the problems arising from the Government?s plans for Regional Control Centres and showed his support for the current system of Local Fire Control Rooms.

There is currently a wide-scale programme of reform and modernisation taking place throughout the Fire and Rescue Service. The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister are aiming to replace Local Fire Control Rooms with a network of Regional Control Centres. There are concerns that a Regional Control Centre will not be able to provide effectively the knowledge of local geography, topography road conditions and other factors that the Local Fire Control Rooms use to manage the mobilisation and deployment of resources in an emergency.

West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service say that 'if the successful completion of the project actually provided greater protection to our communities we would be in favour of it. However, the current proposals do not convince us that the removal of the service from local control will actually provide those benefits'.

Tim believes that the Deputy Prime Minister should scrap altogether his plans for regionalising fire controls and comments that:

'The Government's blind pursuit of its regionalisation agenda, without enough thought being given to the consequences of moving fire prevention and fire-fighting away from genuine local control, is at best foolish and at worst dangerous.

I have not found anyone outside the Government who supports these proposals. The savings on financial grounds are questionable but the overwhelming consideration must be does it add anything to the quality and safety of the already excellent service provided by firs services such as our own in West Sussex. I fear that taking away local control could compromise safety particularly in such a large and spread out rural county as West Sussex and for no gain. ?If it ain?t bust don?t fix it? is a maxim which the Deputy Prime Minister would do well to heed here'.

ENDS

Note to Editor:

1) Tim Loughton MP for East Worthing and Shoreham visited The Fire Control Room in Chichester on the afternoon of Friday 22nd July. He met with the Chief Fire Officer Martin Burrell, Tim Hale (Commander, of West Sussex Fire & Rescue Control Room), and the staff on duty that day in the control room. For further information on Chichester Fire Control Centre, please contact Gary Towson (Media & PR Officer, West Sussex Fire and Rescue Service) on 01243 753739.

2) Tim Loughton MP has signed an Early Day Motion 229A1 that calls for the Government to abort their plans for the imposition of Regional Fire Control Centres. See http://edmi.parliament.uk/edmi/ for a full text of EDM 229A1.

3) Proposals for reform can be found in the Government?s 2005/2006 Fire and Rescue service National Framework at http://www.odpm.gov.uk/stellent/groups/odpm_control/documents/contentservertemplate/odpm_index.hcst?n=4908&l=1

This website is maintained through the Parliamentary Office Costs Allowance and by Tim Loughton personally