Ministers approve 20 bids for fire and rescue cash

By Richard Johnstone | 2 March 2012

Fire authorities across England have been awarded £74m to improve local rescue control rooms, after the government scrapped plans to regionalise the facilities.

Fire minister Bob Neill announced yesterday that 20 bids covering 41 authorities had been successful and would share in the cash. He added that it was part of a ‘localist approach’ to improving national resilience.

In December 2010, Neill ended the Fire Control project, which aimed to merge England's 46 standalone fire and rescue control rooms into nine regional centres.

The contract was terminated because contractors could not meet the requirements within an acceptable timeframe. The project has since been criticised by the Public Accounts Committee as ‘one of the worst cases of project failure’ it has seen.

Neill said the new funding would avoid ‘a forced regionalisation of the fire service’, with authorities instead developing their own plans for co-operation.

Among the approved bids is the introduction of common call handling between Staffordshire and West Midlands Fire and Rescue Authorities. Funds will also be used to strengthen local resilience. Staff at Buckinghamshire, Cambridge and Suffolk authorities, for example, will work closer together to improve responses to large incidents.

‘These locally led bids show we can strengthen national resilience and adopt new technology to save lives, without top-down Whitehall micro-management,’ Neill added.

A total of 23 bids were received, covering 44 of the 46 fire and rescue authorities in England. The proposals were assessed by the government’s chief fire and rescue adviser, Sir Ken Knight.

Three authorities – Avon, Cleveland and North Yorkshire – have been asked to submit more information by the end of June before they can be awarded funding.

The Local Government Association said it was ‘good news’ that the government had adopted a localist approach to fire control improvements.

Brian Coleman, chair of the LGA’s fire services management committee, said: ‘We have long called for the ability to secure money for resilience schemes without having to go through costly and time-consuming assessments and applications. Freeing authorities to get on with protecting their local areas without the need for endless form-filling and government interference is a huge step forward and one that is way overdue.’