SOUTH West Surrey MP Jeremy Hunt has warned the Government's plans to regionalise the fire service could undermine the emergency services when tackling future large-scale disasters. Under the Government's ongoing 'regionalisation plans', the local fire control room for South West Surrey is due to be moved to Fareham in Hampshire, covering a population of more than eight million people and an area of 19,069 square kilometres. Mr Hunt claims the proposals also include plans to take away the fire service element from Tri-Service Centres, where the fire, ambulance and police services for a certain area, are all located in one command centre. A cross-party committee of MPs warned last year that combined control rooms for the emergency services would do more to increase resilience than sprawling, regional fire control rooms. Mr Hunt, who is MP for Haslemere, said: "The Government's expensive plans for the regionalisation of the fire control services are flawed. "Conservatives fear it could actually undermine the effectiveness of the emergency services in tackling disasters like floods – where co-operation between the local council, fire, police and ambulance services is essential. "Local Tri-Service Centres could do far more to improve resilience than creating a distant call centre in the South East, which covers a region that is too distant and too big. "I have already had to fight against the owngrading of services at Haslemere Fire Station and am very concerned about this latest development. "We must avoid at all costs a situation like in Cornwall last week, where not having enough officers compromised fire service efforts to tackle the fire in a Newquay hotel." "Surrey Fire and Rescue Service plays a vital role in making Surrey safer for all, and I particularly want to commend them for their speedy and co- operative response to the recent foot and mouth outbreak. "I am concerned that the Government's plans to regionalise the fire service would damage the partnership approach between services that works so well in Surrey. "Under the new arrangements, Surrey's fire control room will not even be in Surrey anymore, and will have to deal with a population eight times as large." Following the Government's Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004, all fire authorities in England have been allocated to one of the nine Government Office regions, and have been required to form a regional management board. The government told the management boards to scrap their existing local control rooms and create a single control room in each region. The Fire Brigades Union have previously warned the cuts are "dangerous and irresponsible... to gamble with the efficiency of the fire service, at a time when the threat of terrorism makes its efficiency a matter of life and death for all of us, is almost criminally irresponsible".
