Taunton Triservice centre branded a white elephant
A project that will see Gloucestershire’s emergency fire service calls handled in Somerset has been branded “a great white elephant” at Westminster.
Even some supporters of the Government scheme that involves closing existing fire control rooms and replacing them with regional centres, blasted the bungled handling of it to a Parliamentary inquiry.
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Parliament
MPs on a Commons committee were told future governments will have “to seriously consider pulling the plug” on the project.
Members of the Communities and Local Government Select Committee were told the national plans were put together without attention being paid to fire service professionals. One fire chief described the process as “mentally frustrating”.
The criticism came during a hearing into the delays and cost overruns that have dogged the project. Under the move, the county’s dedicated control room at the combined emergency TriService centre at Quedgeley is due to close and move to a regional headquarters in Taunton.
Thousands of pounds are being spent daily on running the regional fire control centre which will not be fully operational for nearly another two years. Figures have revealed how in one month alone the Somerset headquarters that will eventually direct fire and rescue operations in Gloucestershire, cost £140,839 to maintain – nearly £5,000 a day.
With the Government confirming delays to the project, critics warn the bill could cost up to £1 million just to keep the building standing “empty”.
Ministers insist everyone will benefit under the new nationally-linked regional network, with better protection for the public.
But the Fire Brigades Union has branded the project a “disaster” and called for a review of the plans to replace the 46 existing fire control centres – including the seven in the South West – with one for each of the nine English regions.
In evidence to the hearing, John Bonney, president of the Chief Fire Officers Association, said: “We are very committed to the principles of the project. [But] we are concerned at how it’s developed as how badly parts of it has been managed. The fundamental problem is the way the project has been managed.
“There wasn’t enough attention paid to the professional views of what they needed. We will continue to work with the CLG to deliver this project even though it remains very frustrating.”
And he warned that talk of scrapping the scheme was “dangerous in the extreme.”
FBU president Matt Wrack said: “This idea did not come from within the F&RS. It came from within government. The views of professionals within the government have not been taken into account.”
Brian Coleman of the Local Government Association said his organisation has previously been “broadly supportive”.
But he said: “We have now moved to a position of hostility and against the thing in principle.”
A future government will have “to seriously consider pulling the plug” on the project, he said.
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by j glos, gloucester
Wednesday, February 10 2010, 8:15PM
“Ice man well said. The whole farce from beginning to end needs examining and someone should be held responsible. From personal experience I can state that local knowledge will win over sat nav's that direct people down incorrect routes, northings and eastings from mobile phone signals that are miles off and postcode pinpointing which is fine in towns but cover huge areas in rural areas such as Gloucestershire. Which map tells you where Devils Chimney, Leeways corner, The Rec, Horseshoe Bend etc are ?? GWAS are floundering because the management did not value the knowledge in their local control rooms. Don't let this happen to the Fire Service !!!”
by SARAH, Stonehouse area
Tuesday, February 09 2010, 9:10PM
“Nice one Ice man! very well said.”
by Ice Man, Gloucester
Tuesday, February 09 2010, 8:13PM
“A Non-E-Mouse - So how come Ambulance still have a control room at Quedgeley with lots of people and the Avon mobilising computer stil has to be overridden by human intervention?
As for Parmjit, he once told me that he believed in the technology for a regional fire control. Coincidentally, he didn't last long as Fire Minister once Gordon had his reshuffle, even though he was spouting out the government agenda.
Regional Control is that one rare occasion where the Fire Brigades' Union and Senior Fire Management agree overwhelmingly that the whole project was ill-concieved by government and civil servants, completely ignoring the advice of the fire practitioners. Even after the 2007 floods, the government tried to discredit the great job done by the local multi-agencies and Fire Control, refusing to acknowledge the true value of local knowledge and local mobilising of resources.
The only winners at the moment are all the piggy snouts in the national project trough, as the money keeps flowing.”
by Arthur Wellesley, Gloucester
Tuesday, February 09 2010, 5:42PM
“Confused, Gloucester~ I give you one irrefutable Answer ¿Vote Conservative¿ There must be a root and branch destruction of New Labour Polices. The liberals cannot deliver that change so I rely on the conservatives to deliver England freedom from labour social engineering polices last practised by Nazi Germany”
by Anon, Glaws
Tuesday, February 09 2010, 5:38PM
“A Non-E-Mouse, Kitchen Skirting Board - so that would be for the ambulance service who are not hitting targets since they were merged, have a massive staff turn over and unless you can provide a post code cannot send an ambulance? the same one who is constantly failing targets and has to rely on other services and 4 x 4 owners in the snow as they did not purchase suitable vehicles!”
by A Non-E-Mouse, Kitchen Skirting Board
Tuesday, February 09 2010, 4:52PM
“They should have bought a SunGard control room system. Sungard have equipped 22 Ambulance control rooms, fully equipped and now 75% live, on budget and on time in 3 years. All for the DoH and Airwave.
Meanwhile the FireControl project is 5 years late, 3 times over budget and still not a single one live and software problems mean there is no hope of any of them going live any time soon.
Another bodged Government IT project given to the lowest (backhander) bidder!
You can thank that idiot Parmesan Dandy for this mess.”
by Confused, Gloucester
Tuesday, February 09 2010, 4:28PM
“Valid points Arthur, but who will you vote in to stop this mess, I can't see anyone getting us out of this mire.”
by Arthur Wellesley, Gloucester
Tuesday, February 09 2010, 4:09PM
“Labour have acted in a treasonable fashion, trying to socially engineer grateful voters while all of the time defecating on everyone else under the guise of "Positive Discrimination". Millions of our children have been sold the great big lie that university is for them.
We have millions of students with degree's working in coffee shops or call centers 1000's of irrelevant non jobs with quango's that cost a fortune and DO NOTHING useful except spying on everyone! There are NO jobs for a whole generation of young people.
They have sold our children to the dole for the sole purpose of importing millions of people and "Buying" their votes. VOTE LABOUR OUT!”
by wishingiwasmakingmoneyouttathis, FOD
Tuesday, February 09 2010, 3:42PM
“"Ministers insist everyone will benefit under the new nationally-linked regional network, with better protection for the public."
From someone I know that works on the system they are referring to, this is not the case - if one control centre wants to pass a job to another centre they have to do like we do - ring em! Sorry but that ain't nationally linked!”
by Rob, Abbeymead
Tuesday, February 09 2010, 3:14PM
“It's only taxpayers money and peoples lives, it's not like we're talking about anything important.”