Regional fire centres in doubt
The BBC is saying that the £423m project for nine fire control centres in England could be scaled back to five.
It’s not known if the Taunton centre, covering Devon and Cornwall, will be affected. The Devon and Somerset Fire Service Authority said it believed the centre would be going ahead. “There is a building in Taunton and we will be moving in,” says Mark Healey of the Devon and Somerset Fire and Rescue Service Authority.
As usual, confusion reigns, with the firefighters’ union calling for all the centres to be scrapped, returning to local autonomy. John Drake, South West regional secretary of the FBU, said the failure to deal with the IT problems meant the project should be abandoned and it had “disaster written all over it.”
Given the massive overspend on the project — the original cost was estimated by Labour at around £70m — the decision either way must be on the wire.
The completed and furnished centres have been standing empty for about three years, at a cost of £1m rent a month. Once again, computers are blamed for the delay.
Let us hope the Coalition Government can get a firm grip on the previous administration’s IT gremlins.
