People will now wake up to Prescott's Shambles...it will cost lives!

999 call changes 'could cost lives'
Aug 23 2004
By Robert Brooks, The Journal

Lives could be lost if plans to "regionalise" firefighting services go ahead, union leaders and anti-regional assembly campaigners claimed last night.

Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott is facing mounting opposition to moves to replace the existing network of 49 fire control centres in England and Wales with nine new regional control rooms.

These will include just one for the entire North-East and another for the whole of Scotland.
Callers would have to contact their regional centre via an automated answering service, which handles calls through a menu of push-button questions and answers.

A computer will then decide which fire appliance to send out. At present any 999 calls are connected to a local control room staffed by officers who are familiar with the geography of the area.

The issue now looks set to flare up in the regional assembly referendum, with Neil Herron, director of the North-East `No' campaign, branding the idea "insane".

And his concerns have been loudly echoed by local Fire Brigades Union chiefs, who agree the plans are certain to upset a public already sick and tired of listening to recorded messages.
"It's frustrating enough having to listen to a recorded message when you're sitting at home and everything is calm," said Mr Herron, who was an avid campaigner against EU legislation with the late "metric martyr" Steve Thoburn.
"Imagine having to go through this when your house is burning down. People who ring 999 want to deal with a human being, not a machine. It's just one more facet of regionalisation which we don't need, and it will cost lives if it goes ahead."

With the possibility of distances of over 100 miles between callers and the call centre, FBU North-East representative Jean Westwood said time was critical when dealing with emergencies. "By the time a caller gets through and the fire appliance arrives, the situation could have gone from routine to extremely serious," she said. "We are in no doubt that lives could be lost, because the longer it takes to get that call processed, the greater the danger to the caller and the fire crew.
"If staff are cut as a result of the change, callers could end up in queues." And she added: "Our switchboard operators have all trained locally and know the risks, accident spots, major roads and even minor lanes. One of our biggest fears is that we would be handling calls for places we don't have a solitary clue about.

A spokeswoman for the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister said: "We're confident the new national network of regional control centres, using the latest technology, will provide a better service to the public.

"The centres will provide a more robust service in the event of major incidents."

To read the exclusive, "Pick a Fire From the Following Menu," exposed in Christopher Booker's Notebook in the Sunday Telegraph please click here