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FiReControl is a UK based project that was initiated in March 2004, to reduce the number of control rooms used to handle emergency calls for fire services and authorities. Presently there are 46 control rooms in England that handle calls from the local public for emergency assistance via the 999 system. A new radio network - FireLink is being developed and built and will be fully compatible with FiReControl.[1]

All the 46 current control rooms will be combine into 9 Regional Control Centres (RCCs).

Current arrangements in existing Control Rooms

Each Fire and Rescue Service in England is responsible for accepting and processing Emergency fire calls in their own local authority area and with agreement emergency calls from other Fire and Rescue Service areas. These are answered by dedicated Fire Control staff who use computer aided mobilising systems to locate the nearest, available, appropriate resources and mobilise them to the incident. The Control staff maintain contact with the Fire crews, in most cases by voice radio whilst on their way and during the incident to provide current information and respond to critical requests.

Fire and Rescue Services can support each other with additional resources, although the Control rooms rely on different technologies and operational procedures and they are not physically networked, they support each other by taking calls and giving advice to a caller from outside their area, then the information is passed to the relevant fire service via telephone, fax or radio, depending on the speediest option. There are approximately 1500 Control staff employed in England, 350 on duty at any one time under the current County system, all staff are able to take emergency calls for their neighbours during busy periods such as severe flooding or multiple grass fires during droughts.

Future arrangements in Regional Control Centres

The Regional control rooms expect to improve on the current arrangements by [2]

  • Networking each of the 9 centres so they will be able to automatically back each other up in times of increased call pressure or failure.
  • Providing purpose built, secure and resilient modern facilities.
  • Ensuring each RCC will have access to the same information and the ability to manage and deploy resources on a local, regional or national level.
  • Providing each RCC with caller identification location technology – which means the location a call is coming from will be identified automatically.
  • Providing Satellite positioning equipment – which will monitor the whereabouts of each vehicle.
  • Mobile data terminals - will be installed in cabs so firefighters have constantly updated information.
  • Rationalise mobilising policies and procedures across all existing Fire and Rescue Services in England.

However much of the technology is said to becoming obsolete before it has been installed due to progress in technology and delays to the project. Some fire services already have some of the proposed equipment some 3 years before the final RCC goes live.

In support of the new Control Rooms an additional Government project called FireLink is delivering a new digital radio system called Airwave [3]

Delivering the Technology

In March 2007, then Fire and Rescue Service Minister Angela Smith announced that EADS Defence & Security Systems had been awarded an eight-year £200m contract to supply the IT infrastructure for the RCCs.

Regions and Locations of Regional Control Centres

Region Location Control rooms it will take over Cutover date Reference
East of England (E o E) Cambridge Research Park, Cambridgeshire Essex, Norfolk, Cambridge and Peterborough, Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire and Luton and Suffolk Fire and Rescue Services. September 2011 - May 2012[4] [5]
East Midlands (EM) Willow Farm Business Park, Leicestershire Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire, Lincolnshire, and Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue Services. May 2011 - January 2012[6] [7]
London Merton Industrial Estate, London London Fire Brigade September 2011[8] [9]
North East (NE) Belmont Business Park, Durham Durham and Darlington, Tyne and Wear, Cleveland and Northumberland. May 2011 - November 2011[10] [11]
North West (NW) Lingley Mere Business Park, Warrington Cumbria, Cheshire, Lancashire, Greater Manchester and Merseyside Fire and Rescue Services. January 2012 - May 2012[12] [13]
South East (SE) Kite's Croft, Hampshire Hampshire, Royal Berkshire, Oxfordshire, Kent, East Sussex, Buckinghamshire, Isle of Wight, Surrey and West Sussex Fire and Rescue Services. March 2012 - November 2012[14] [15]
South West (SW) Blackbrook Business Park, Taunton Devon and Somerset, Dorset, Avon, Cornwall, Wiltshire and Gloucestershire Fire and Rescue Services. May 2011 - March 2012[16] [17]
West Midlands (WM) Wolverhampton Business Park, Wolverhampton Staffordshire, West Midlands, Shropshire, Hereford and Worcester and Warwickshire Fire and Rescue Services. May 2011 - March 2012[18] [19]
Yorkshire and Humberside (YH) Paragon Business Village, Wakefield West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, Humberside and North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Services. July 2012 - November 2012[20] [21]

Cut over to Regional Control Centres

Cut over will happen gradually with groups of Fire and Rescue Services moving from local to regional controls in batches. This will make it easier to identify, isolate and address any problems that arise without affecting the quality of service provided to the public. Under the current planning assumptions the first Regional Control Centres will go live in spring 2011 with the full system expected in place by the end of 2012. [22]

Manangement of Regional Control Centres

Each Regional Control Centre (RCC) will be run by an organisation known as a local authority controlled company. This company is jointly owned by all the Fire and Rescue Authorities (FRAs) in that region.

As of April 2008 regional local authority controlled companies have been set up in the North East, North West, East Midlands, West Midlands, South West and the South East. London does not need to set up a local authority controlled company because of its unique arrangements

Select Committee

On 8 February 2010 the House of Commons Communities and Local Government Select Committee heard evidence on the Fire Control project.[23] Called to give evidence were Cllr Brian Coleman and Cllr James Pearson from the Local Government Association. Also giving evidence Matt Wrack from the Fire Brigades Union and John Bonney Chief Fire Officers Association. The second session heard evidence from Shahid Malik MP Fire Minister, Sir Ken Knight Chief Fire and Rescue Adviser, Shona Dunn Director for Fire and Resilience Department for Communities and Local Government, Robin Southwell CEO and Roger Diggle Project Director EADS. The committee was chaired by Dr Phyllis Starkey MP and attracted significant media attention.[24][25][26][27]

Opposition to Regional Control Centres

The Fire Brigades Union which represents firefighting personnel and Control staff at all levels within the Fire and Rescue Service across the UK, has launched a campaign against the regionalisation of emergency fire control rooms.The Union has stated that project has virtually no acceptance amongst the workforce which is of major concern to the directors and ministers. Members of the Fire Brigades union have grave concerns about the diversion of vital money to this unpopular project, the feasibility of having 30% less Control staff available to answer emergency calls across the Country during spate conditions. There are fears that the RCC 999 system will become swamped with calls and come to a complete standstill and the loss of local knowledge amongst the call takers is also a significant risk. Chief Fire Officers may have less control over service delivery in their County, which may be a concern to Fire Authorities around the Country. [28]

The Conservative_Party_(UK) have published a policy green paper on 2009-04-02 saying that they will cancel the Regionalisation of Fire Control as part of their Decentralisation / Localisation policy. [29]

References

  1. ^ http://www.communities.gov.uk/fire/resilienceresponse/firelinkimprovedfire/
  2. ^ http://www.communities.gov.uk/fire/resilienceresponse/firecontrol
  3. ^ http://www.airwavesolutions.co.uk/Pages/default.aspx
  4. ^ http://www.communities.gov.uk/news/corporate/1283906
  5. ^ http://www.communities.gov.uk/fire/resilienceresponse/firecontrol/regions/eastengland/
  6. ^ http://www.communities.gov.uk/news/corporate/1283906
  7. ^ http://www.communities.gov.uk/fire/resilienceresponse/firecontrol/regions/eastmidlands/
  8. ^ http://www.communities.gov.uk/news/corporate/1283906
  9. ^ http://www.communities.gov.uk/fire/resilienceresponse/firecontrol/regions/london/
  10. ^ http://www.communities.gov.uk/news/corporate/1283906
  11. ^ http://www.firecontrolne.co.uk/
  12. ^ http://www.communities.gov.uk/news/corporate/1283906
  13. ^ http://www.nwfirecontrol.com/
  14. ^ http://www.communities.gov.uk/news/corporate/1283906
  15. ^ http://www.communities.gov.uk/fire/resilienceresponse/firecontrol/regions/southeast/
  16. ^ http://www.communities.gov.uk/news/corporate/1283906
  17. ^ http://www.swfirecontrol.co.uk
  18. ^ http://www.communities.gov.uk/news/corporate/1283906
  19. ^ http://www.communities.gov.uk/fire/resilienceresponse/firecontrol/regions/westmidlands/
  20. ^ http://www.communities.gov.uk/news/corporate/1283906
  21. ^ http://www.communities.gov.uk/fire/resilienceresponse/firecontrol/regions/yorkshumberside/
  22. ^ http://www.communities.gov.uk/fire/resilienceresponse/firecontrol/projectschedule/
  23. ^ "FiReControl - Communities and Local Government Committee Contents". UK Parliament. 8 February 2010. Retrieved 17 April 2010.
  24. ^ "FILE ON 4" (PDF). BBC. 2 March 2010. Retrieved 17 April 2010.
  25. ^ "FBU denounces failing fire control project as 'the worst ever'". tribunemagazine.co.uk. 19 March 2010. Retrieved 17 April 2010.
  26. ^ "Blast for 999 centre delays". Manchester Evening News. 1 April 2010. Retrieved 17 April 2010.
  27. ^ "FRS Circular 3/2010 - Fire and Resilience Programme Highlights - January/February 2010". department of communities and local government. 26 February 2010. Retrieved 17 April 2010.
  28. ^ http://www.fbu.org.uk/campaigns/outofcontrol/index.php
  29. ^ http://www.conservatives.com/~/media/Files/Green%20Papers/Localism_Policy_Paper.ashx?dl=true
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