Submitted by SWFBU on
THE FIRE BRIGADES UNION
MEDIA RELEASE: 18 January 2011
Government moves to make local fire services pay after bungled IT project
South West fire services could face a bill for millions of pounds after a £1.4 billion Government IT project was abandoned before Xmas. FireControl aimed to replace 999 command and control centres but the technology failed to work.
South west fire services spent nearly 8 years keeping their old 999 call systems going while they waited for a single regional 999 control centre. Any money needed for replacement systems will now be tied into paying for the failed regional project, according to a new Government consultation.
Tam McFarlane FBU south west EC member said: “The regional FireControl Project was bungled by central Government and wasted hundreds of millions of pounds. All we have is a very large regional fire control building filled with broken promises and technology which does not work. This was a project that nobody in the Fire Service wanted and which the FBU said from the start would be a disaster. If Government had listened to us in the beginning they wouldn’t be in this mess and hundreds of millions of pounds of tax payers money would have been saved.
“Fire services are already facing major cuts in central Government funding and this is a body blow. Whitehall is trying to pass the buck for a failed political decision and suddenly wants local fire services to find the money to pay for central Government's mistake.
“South west fire services are now left with old systems and facilities they have to quickly replace because the national Government failed to deliver a new system. This project was bungled in Whitehall which should pick up the bill, not local council tax payers.
Contacts:-
Tam McFarlane 07813 170279
John Drake 07813 170755
