It is perfectly obvious that the government will press ahead with its plans for building regional control rooms for the fire service if we leave all protesting to the fire-fighters union, the FBU. But should
we let that happen? 1) *_The service is for us, the people,_* and is likely to be worse with greater risk to lives and more damage to property than is currently the case. 2) Any increased costs will be paid
for by - guess who? US!

May I respectfully suggest you email everyone on your mailing list to write letters to the press and their MP objecting to regionalisation. It should be pointed out that regionalisation of the fire control
rooms *is* part of EU regionalisation policy as are the proposals for police regionalisation that the majority of police forces do not want.

For those in organisations I suggest they ask the organisation to have a speaker from the FBU to tell them what regionalisation means and the organisation write to the MP protesting at the move.

Anne Palmer

Firefighters reject plans for single 999 centre_*

/by Stuart Arnold/

FIREFIGHTERS in the North-East have massively rejected plans for a single fire control centre to handle all 999 emergency calls.

In a poll conducted by the Fire Brigades Union (FBU), 86 per cent of firefighters said the Government should halt the project, which will replace control rooms in Cleveland, Durham and Northumbria.

The FBU said it was a "body blow" for the Government's plans, which are aimed at providing a more resilient system at times of extreme strain, such as natural disaster or terrorist attack.

Work has already begun on the new multi-million pound fire control centre in the North-East, based at Belmont Business Park, near Durham City, which is due to open in about two years.

The FBU, which questioned a random sample of its members across the North-East, said 89 per cent believed the move would not improve the response to incidents, while 92 per cent said their own safety would not be improved.

The Government has argued there is a "compelling" need to modernise and rationalise control rooms in England and has pledged that the new centres will better protect the public.

But Matt Wrack, FBU general secretary said: "The poll findings are a body blow for these plans. Those who really know the fire service and
what these proposals mean, have given them a massive thumbs down. Those who will have to deal with the consequences of the proposals clearly have little confidence in them.

"Despite intense propaganda, the Government has failed to win support for these plans from those who know most about them. The clear message from the frontline is that we do not want Whitehall-imposed regional control rooms."

The FBU says much of the new technology involved is untested.

Conservatives have accused Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott of planning to scrap borough and county councils in the English shires in a shake-up which they claimed would add up to £360 to people's council tax bills.

Leaked documents obtained by the party made clear that the Government was planning to announce a single-tier council system to replace historic counties and boroughs in a White Paper in the middle of this year, said Tory local government spokesman Eric Pickles.

But Mr Prescott's office accused the Conservatives of "scare-mongering", insisting that any changes to the local authority framework would not lead to increased burdens on tax-payers.

Labour's manifesto for last year's general election promised to ensure councils were organised in "the most effective way" but the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister told MPs earlier this month that no decision had been
taken on whether to go for reorganisation of their structure.

Mr Pickles said that the leaked presentation paper showed that Mr Prescott had made up his mind to replace the existing council structure with large authorities under powerful executives.

The shake-up would mean thousands of councillors - many of them Conservative activists - losing their elected positions, he said.

A 2004 study by Cambridge University academic Michael Chisholm calculated the costs of reorganising local government in all 34 English counties at between £1 billion and £3.5 billion, depending on how many new unitary authorities were created in each county, said Mr Pickles. This equates to between £201 and £358 for each English household.

The document, entitled The Local Governance Debate, states that the ODPM is planning to finalise the Government's position on reorganisation in a White Paper by mid-2006.

It insists that no decisions have yet been taken and that the Government is not engaging in a "sterile unitary v two-tier debate" but searching for "innovative governance options".

The main arguments against the current system are that it creates fragmented leadership and public confusion over who is responsible for which service, says the document. It adds that critics of district councils regard them as an "expensive luxury".