£¾m a month to run empty control centres

12:10pm Monday 5th January 2009

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A NEW control centre for 999 calls that is being built in Lingley Mere is wasting Government money, the Fire Brigades Union has said.

The Government is spending more than £750,000 a month on nine new control centres across the country, and the sum will rise to £1m in the new year, union leaders said.

The new centres are empty because computer problems delayed the project, said Mark Wrack, the FBU general secretary.

They were meant to be ready by 2007, but now it seems unlikely they will be up and running before 2010.

“The Government is prepared to spend that sum every two years on empty buildings. If this happened in business, someone would be held accountable,” said Mr Wrack.

The control centres were built under a plan to turn the current 47 regional centres into nine. A Communities and Local Government spokesman said: “New regional control centre buildings are not standing idle.

“They are being fitted out with IT and other equipment, being used for the developing and testing of systems, and providing familiarisation and training facilities for fire service staff and elected members.

“Good progress has been made on a number of fronts including, the practical completion of eight of the nine buildings and the establishing of the local authority owned companies. The national network will be operational from spring 2012.”