Privatisation of London fire training and of the fire control centre would compromise safety and bring high financial risks

A new report warns that plans to privatise London Fire Brigade training and the fire control centre would compromise safety whilst imposing new high financial risks on the capital’s fire service. The European Services Strategy Unit, jointly commissioned by the FBU, GMB and UNISON, has released its report examining plans to privatise London’s Fire Service Training and Control Centre. The report highlights the poor performance of previous Public Private Partnerships, finding that one in five (20%) of PPP strategic partnership contracts have either been terminated, reduced in scope, or suffered significant operational and/or financial problems. This is a higher rate than for PFI projects and imposes many more risks for the London Fire and Emergency…

Prescott should take the blame for FiReControl failure, not firefighters

The Fire Brigades Union has dismissed John Prescott’s remarks on Radio 4 this morning, blaming firefighters and civil servants for the failure of the FiReControl project. Matt Wrack, FBU general secretary said: “Only a minister who doesn’t know what’s going on blames others. Prescott has no excuse. He was told by the FBU, among others. He was clearly not doing his job properly. “Instead of accepting his own central role in authoring and driving this disastrous project, he prefers to blame those who work in the service and pass the buck. “The central failing of FiReControl was political. Prescott was the prime mover and the Secretary of State who could have ended the project at…

Support Emergency Control Members

The Early Day Motion below has been put to Parliament by Alan Meale MP.  Please visit or write to your MP and initially make sure they are aware of it, then ask them to support emergency control room members by signing up to support it. You can find out who your MP is by visiting http://www.writetothem.com/ Fire Control Cover EDM 1428 Meale, Alan That this House recalls the Government’s decision in December 2010 to scrap its Regional Fire Control Project which it then relayed to all fire authorities throughout the UK; understands the confusion this caused particularly amongst those authorities who under Government guidance had financially committed themselves to delivering; is alarmed therefore to learn that…

REGIONAL FIRECONTROL PROJECT SCRAPPE

Dear Brother/Sister   ENGLISH REGIONAL FIRECONTROL PROJECT SCRAPPED On Monday 20th December the Westminster Fire Minister issued a written Ministerial Statement to the House of Commons which terminated, with immediate effect, the contract with Cassidian (formerly EADS) to deliver the FiReControl Project. For the past seven years our members in Emergency Fire Controls across the Services in England have had to live with uncertainty and Governmental incompetence as the project has stumbled on from one crisis to another. The FBU were the only voice within the Fire and Rescue Service (FRS) that consistently opposed the regionalisation of our Fire Controls: not for self-serving reasons, but because we saw no evidence to suggest that this was going to improve in…

Stop squandering taxpayers’ money, honour pre-election pledge and scrap FiReControl now – FBU challenges Tories to stop dithering

Tory ministers in the Coalition government were today challenged to call time on the flawed and costly plan to regionalise fire control in England. Since the last General Election the botched and wasteful FiReControl project has cost the tax payer £6.5M just for rent on empty buildings. In the run-up to the election, both the Tories – holding their party conference in Birmingham this week – and the Lib-Dems pledged to scrap FiReControl, the project which aims to replace 46 local fire control centres with nine big new centres covering the whole country. The ill-fated FiReControl Project has been plagued by IT delays, contractual problems and missed deadlines. No computers have been installed, and the…

Fire Bridades Union concerned about merger of Isle of Wight Fire Control Centre to Surrey

FIRE BRIGADES UNION IMMEDIATE MEDIA RELEASE: 23rd September 2010 Fire Bridades Union concerned about merger of Isle of Wight Fire Control Centre to Surrey At the Isle of Wight Council Full Council meeting, held on Wednesday 22 September 2010, Councillors voted through plans for an ‘in principle’ decision to move the Island’s emergency 999 Fire Control Centre to Reigate in Surrey. The Fire Brigades Union are deeply concerned that these proposals are hastily being moved forward, to the extent that full public consultation and scrutiny is being pushed aside, with the issue of the Island’s Fire Control not due to return to a Full Council Meeting (rather a delegated decision at a future Cabinet Meeting)…

Face the Facts – Money To Burn, BBC Radio 4

Face the Facts – Money To Burn, BBC Radio 4 Firefighters need the right equipment and back up if they are going to save lives. But millions of pounds have been spent on state of the art control rooms that may never be used, fire engines that are so heavy they can’t be driven at speed and a fire training house – that caught fire. Just some of the costly procurement decisions made on behalf of fire and rescue services across Britain – but paid for by us. Listen to the broadcast here via BBC iPlayer: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00tgwlf/Face_the_Facts_Money_To_Burn/ Broadcast on: BBC Radio 4, 12:30pm Thursday 26th August 2010 Duration: 26 minutes Available until: 12:00am Thursday 1st…

Lease costs for South East Regional Control Centre announced

Lease costs for South East Regional Control Centre (SERCC) have been announced. The figures show that the South East Regional Emergency Fire Control has a 25 year lease costing £46 million. Breaking this down per annum is an annual cost of £1.84m. Dividing this figure down further to County level (for the nine counties for the RCC: Isle of Wight, Hampshire, Surrey, Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, West Sussex, East Sussex, Kent, Berkshire) means the cost per annum to the local tax payer will be £204,445. Additional figures that would have to be added to the above annual costs for the Regional Fire Control Centre (based in Fareham) would be £396,825 per annum (£44,091 for the Isle of Wight)…

Firefighters’ union condemns broken government pledge on regional control centres

THE FIRE BRIGADES UNION Firefighters’ union condemns broken government pledge on regional control centres The Fire Brigades Union today condemned the decision to renege on the pledge made by both coalition partners that they would scrap the previous government’s plan to create nine big regional control centres. Fire Minister Bob Neill announced yesterday that the government would honour the contracts to companies. It means replacing the present 46 control centres with nine big centres, operating new, complicated and untried technology. “This is a massively expensive way of making Britain less safe, and a shameless abandonment of a clear pledge given before the election by both governing parties” FBU general secretary Matt Wrack said today. “Firefighters…

FiReControl and recent Government Announcements

CIRCULAR: 2010HOC0348AD 26 May 2010 TO: ALL MEMBERS Dear Brother/Sister, FIRECONTROL AND RECENT GOVERNMENT ANNOUNCEMENTS Members will be aware of various reports issued by government departments at Westminster, which refer to the government’s consideration of the FiReControl Project and regionalisation more generally. Similarly, a number of members and officials have received what appears to be, positive assurances from their Member of Parliament. Whilst we all hope that common sense will prevail, at this time no definite decision has been made whether to proceed with the project as it stands; to delay the current project; to modify the project progress with an alternative; or of course, to cease the project entirely and to maintain the current…