Plans to handle Cornwall's 999 fire calls elsewhere to go before full council
Officials insist the proposal does not mean the control centre will close
The Leader of Cornwall Council has said that a proposal to have 999 calls for Cornwall's Fire and Rescue Service to be handled outside the county will go to councillors next month.
There has been criticism of an announcement that the service's control centre could close by the end of March.
At a meeting of full council at New County Hall on Wednesday, a number of councillors expressed their concerns about the possibility of transferring the control centre outside Cornwall. They were also concerned about how an announcement had been made to staff before any decision had been made.
The Fire Brigades Union has said that Cornwall Council should be "ashamed" to be considering the change and says it opposes the move in the interests of public safety. There are concerns that taking control of 999 calls outside of Cornwall could impact response times.
Conservative councillor John Conway asked council leader Linda Taylor to explain the rationale for the move and said he was concerned about the loss of local knowledge for the service. He asked for details of the current proposals.
Concerns about response times
Cllr Taylor said that Cornwall Fire and Rescue Service (CFRS) was currently undertaking a project which was aimed at finding efficiencies in the service as well as ways of improving the performance of the service.
She said that the service was seeing a year on year increase in costs for providing the control centre and that CFRS had looked at a number of options to try and reduce that cost.
These included removing any non-statutory functions of the control centre; co-locating with the police and ambulance service; and outsourcing to another fire and rescue service. She explained that it was this option that would be presented to a meeting of the council’s neighbourhoods overview and scrutiny committee on October 6th.
She said that the proposal did not mean that the station and building at Tolvaddon would close and said that any staff affected would be redeployed in the service. Cllr Taylor added: "We understand there is a human aspect to this proposal and that is why staff have been told at the earliest opportunity by the Chief Fire Officer".
"Only a proposal"
She stressed that the changes were "only a proposal" and that councillors would have an opportunity to ask questions and debate the issue at the overview and scrutiny committee on October 6th.
Cllr Taylor said that fire service professionals would be in attendance at the meeting to answer any questions and provide explanations about the proposals.
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