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Lib-Dem protest over fire control move fails

Monday, 20th December 2010.

Conservatives and Lib-Dems may have joined forces to run the country, but on Suffolk County Council they are fighting each other over the future of the county fire control centre.

The Conservative-controlled council's public protection committee agreed to farm out its fire control service to Cambridgeshire, thus saving 23 jobs.

The Lib-Dems called the decision in to be reconsidered, but today the committee decided to go ahead with it.

The Lib-Dems claim only eight of the 23 control room staff will be required by Cambridgeshire. They will face a 150-mile round trip to work each day.

Part of the rationale behind the decision was the likelihood of regional fire control centres being set up. One has already been built at Waterbeach in Cambridgeshire.

But today the Government announced it was scrapping plans for regional fire control centres, so now the Waterbeach building is unlikely to be used.

Chairman of the public protection committee, Liberal Democrat John Field, said: "It is ludicrous that Suffolk have made such an important decision on the pretence that Regional Fire Control was going ahead.

"This is now an irreversible step. Suffolk is the only fire authority in the region to go down this route.

"No value has been assigned to local knowledge, which allows Suffolk staff to identify incident locations from minimal information from people who are often very distressed.

"If you have an accident on a country road in the county, you don’t know the postcode, but can describe some local landmarks, local control room staff can then locate the incident quickly and despatch fire appliances.

"It’s clear that Government are willing to support fire authorities in whatever new arrangements they may need to put in place.

"So why on earth was this decision made today? We suspect it was purely a cost cutting exercise and an excuse to dispose of 23 dedicated control room staff.”

Lib-Dem group leader Cllr Kathy Pollard said: "There are clearly many risks that go along with this decision, but nowhere have we seen a list of these.

"The loss of the control room, along with other proposed cuts to the fire service, looks to the public like a serious downgrading of the service in the county.”

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