Plans to create a joint control centre for Royal Berkshire and Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue services were approved last week.
At separate meetings on 17 July Oxfordshire County Council and Royal Berkshire Fire Authority both gave the go ahead for the Thames Valley Fire Control Service (TVFCS).
The new control centre will be located at the new headquarters of Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service (RBFRS) in Calcot, near Reading, and is expected to save £659,000 a year for the two services.
The TVFCS is expected to open in April 2014, with the aim of providing an improved service to the public and greater safety for firefighters.
Similar combined control centres are already in operation in other parts of the country as fire services look to save money. Cumbria and Cheshire are already sharing services ahead of the creation of a wider joint North West Control room with Lancashire and Greater Manchester.
Cambridgeshire and Suffolk’s combined control room became operational last October and earlier this year announced they were considering a full merger of services, while plans to create a combined Scottish Fire Service were approved in June.
The Thames Valley Fire Control Service will use new systems with the latest risk information and technology to help the control room staff. These systems will help staff identify the exact location of an incident more quickly and pinpoint the precise position of fire appliances which will be fitted with the latest Mobile Data Terminals displaying incidents on a mapping system in real time.
A new mobilising system will allow operators to send the nearest fire appliance to an incident irrespective of which fire and rescue service area it is from.
Job losses
There are currently 52 control room staff employed by the two services, and fire chiefs anticipate they will only require 30 people in the new control centre. This latest development follows a lengthy consultation on a national project, FiReControl, to create regional fire control centres that was scrapped in 2010.
RBFRS chief fire officer, Iain Cox, said: “Individual Control rooms have become increasingly unsustainable due to falling incident numbers, reflecting our success in fire prevention. I am delighted that the decision has been made to move forward with the TVFCS and I am confident that it will provide an improved, more resilient and cost-effective service for the people of Berkshire and Oxfordshire.
“However, I am acutely aware of the impact that this news will have on both RBFRS and OFRS Control staff, who have already experienced a lengthy period of uncertainty while the national FiReControl project was underway. My colleagues in Oxfordshire and I are committed to supporting our staff through this process and will do everything we can to make the transition to the TVFCS as smooth as possible.”
Dave Etheridge, chief fire officer at OFRS said: “I have every confidence that a joint Control room in Calcot would expertly serve both Royal Berkshire’s and our needs here in Oxfordshire. It will be staffed by professional experienced staff from both Oxfordshire and Berkshire, linking the Services in a seamless way.”