Bexhill faces fire service cuts or increased tax, MP warns

The Bexhill and Battle MP made his claims after major problems were exposed in Government plans for the regionalisation of the fire services.

Labour Ministers are currently pushing ahead with plans to replace England's 46 local fire control rooms with nine regional control rooms.

This project is known as FiReControl.

The local fire control room in Eastbourne would be closed and superceded by what Mr Barker describes as a sprawling regional call centre in Fareham, Hampshire.

He says: "Regionalisation will result in the downgrading of many 'tri-service' centres, the loss of local knowledge and expertise, and significant expenditure.

'¢ Escalating costs of fire restructuring: The draft business case last year admitted that the set-up costs of the project were already 400 million over its 1 billion national budget. The Fire Brigades Union has recently estimated that 278 million is being spent on management consultants, regional project directors, "change co-ordinators", project assurance directors, PR staff, civil servants, and agency staff, to handle the restructuring.

'¢ Local fire services face cuts: Whilst the Government has pledged to fund centrally the increased running costs for the regional control centres, these payments are only for three years. This leaves the prospect that local fire authorities will have to pick up the bill - through cuts to other services or via increasing the fire precept on council tax. The recent regional business case admits that "additional efficiencies and/or revenue generating" will be needed. In May, the Government instructed new Regional Management Boards to deliver more "sharing of functions at a regional or sub-regional level" to deliver "efficiencies." This raises the prospect that local fire stations face cuts '“ imposed at a regional level '“ to pay for the flawed regionalisation process.

'¢ Fire service regionalisation cancelled in Scotland: The SNP-led administration in Scotland cancelled Labour's plans for the regionalisation of Scottish fire control room in December. Yet Scotland is still going ahead with IT and infrastructure improvements such as digital radios, GPS and interoperability with other emergency services, proving that regionalisation is not needed to adopt new technologies to improve resilience.

'¢ A leaked letter reveals chaos in government: A leaked letter from the head of the new South West Regional Fire Control company to Ministers reveals widespread discontent about the Government's plans. He warns that local fire and rescue authorities will not voluntarily submit to the Government's regionalisation of the fire service. He criticises delays in the project, leading to 'immense frustration' and 'profound disappointment'. Ministers are told that 'confidence amongst the company directors, our hard working officers and, we suspect, fire authorities is now rock bottom.' A cross-party Select Committee has already sounded the alarm that 'there is no evidence to suggest any overall saving' and 'we are unconvinced that the Government can offer the assurance of maintained or improved service quality resulting from the FiReControl project'."

Mr Barker said: "The Labour Government's expensive plans for the regionalisation of the fire control services are mired in chaos.

"The shambolic project is already delayed and 400m over budget. Costs are likely to rise even more once detailed costings are finalised. I fear that local fire services for Bexhill and Battle face cuts, or the fire levy on council tax will have to rise, in order to pay for the soaring bill for fire regionalisation.

"Labour Ministers should follow the example of Scotland and dump these