The business case for the GB pound 380 million network of control centres for the fire and rescue service in England was this week laid out by the government in a written statement to Parliament.
Fire Minister Sadiq Khan said the government remains strongly committed to the GB pound 380 million Fire Control scheme and that although the implementation schedule had slipped be several months, good progress has been made on a number of fronts. This includes the completion of eight new Regional Control Centre buildings, the establishment of eight local authority controlled companies which bring together local partners, and the development of a network of regional project teams to ensure the project is a success in their areas.
“Major emergencies in recent years have shown us the very real challenges we face in today’s world, the minister said. “Fire Control will give all fire and rescue services access to systems and technology that only a few currently benefit from. It will result in greater resilience and collaboration, better information and incident support for firefighters, and a better service to the public – both day to day and during major incidents.”
Highlights of the national business case include:
* the completion of all three major national procurements
* overall savings of GB pound 8million per year nationally once the network is fully operational
* eight of the nine RCC buildings have achieved practical completion and work to fit them out with the new IT infrastructure has started. The ninth is on schedule
* all eight local authority controlled companies (LACCs) have been established.
Following initial discussions with representatives of England’s Fire and Rescue Services, as well as the main contractor and the Firelink radio communications project, the department has also published a revised timetable for the changeover to the new network. It indicates that the first three centres to be up and running will be the North East, East Midlands and South West, with the changeover starting in summer 2010. The full national network of nine should be operational from spring 2012, but this date is only provisional.
The government’s business case
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