Warning as fire centre costs soar

The costs of the hugely contentious project unveiled by the previous Labour administration six years ago have rocketed from 120m to 420m after it has been beset by a glut of IT problems and a high turn-over of staff.

The Fire Brigades Union (FBU) is now calling for the coalition government to scrap the national FiReControl scheme, which will see the existing 46 control rooms replaced with nine regional centres.

Four control rooms across the Yorkshire region are due to be merged into a single call handling centre in Wakefield, although the premises still remain vacant.

The regional FBU chairman for Yorkshire and Humberside, Ian Watkins, claimed Ministers "can't pass the buck" on the previous government by continuing to support the botched project.

He said: "Coalition politicians have already reneged on pre-election pledges to scrap the scheme. Costs are spiralling, buildings remain empty and IT systems are not up to scratch."

The project risked becoming an albatross round the coalition's neck unless they moved to scrap it as soon as possible.

Fresh outrage was sparked this week when Communities Secretary Eric Pickles revealed computer technology is unable to direct fire appliances to emergencies across vast swathes of Yorkshire as the navigation system only recognises one city – Wakefield.

And the hugely over-budget overhaul of control rooms has faced a wave of criticism at a time when the fire service is facing up to massive cuts in spending as the Government attempts to slash the national deficit.

Staff from at least one of the region's brigades are being asked for "expressions of interest" about whether they would accept voluntary redundancy.

A letter has been sent out by fire chiefs in North Yorkshire to gauge how many workers would be willing to leave their posts as the brigade battles to reduce its costs.

Mr Watkins said: "The public will start to ask questions about why public funds are being used on this wasteful project, while front-line firefighters and experienced control staff face losing their jobs.

"The contrast between getting rid of firefighters and pumping money into FiReControl will not be lost on people."

The Department of Communities and Local Government confirmed yesterday that empty regional control centre buildings are costing more than 1m a month in rent.

Fire Minister Bob Neill admitted that the project, which is being overseen by the international defence and security systems company, EADS, is "behind schedule and over-budget".

But he stressed no extra taxpayers' cash will be used to resolve ongoing problems.

"The new government is becoming increasingly concerned at the inability of EADS to deliver on its contractual obligations to a sufficient quality and to time," Mr Neill said.

"We are not going to provide additional public funding to bail out this contract, and we are going to stand up for the interests of hard-pressed taxpayers and the fire and rescue service.

"The Government is committed to ensuring value-for-money for the taxpayer, improving resilience and stopping the forced regionalisation of the fire service."

An EADS spokesman stressed progress was being made to resolve problems, and added: "Equipment has been delivered and is being used successfully in the field.

"This phase of the test cycle of this highly complex integration of technologies is designed to capture bugs. These are being resolved through the normal project processes."