Hot prospects for town's fire crews (From Warrington Guardian)

Hot prospects for town's fire crews

A MULTI-MILLION pound fire control centre is set to be built in Great Sankey.

The Government announced yesterday, Wednesday, that it is replacing the country's 46 control rooms with nine state-of-the-art bases - including one at Lingley Mere Business Park.

Steve McGuirk, Cheshire's chief fire officer, said: "I am delighted that the site for the new regional control centre is to be in Warrington. It will be good for our own staff and will make relocation much easier.

"It should also enable the communities of Warrington, Halton and Cheshire to take advantage of state-of-the-art technology with a larger number of people handling emergency calls."

Clr John Joyce, leader of Warrington Borough Council, said he was delighted.

He said: "It's a prime site and will bring high quality jobs to Warrington. It's another example of Warrington being an attractive place to invest."

The new centres are part of the fire service's modernisation programme and will be equipped with the latest technology.

The Warrington site is set to open in 2008.

The Lingley Mere move will see staff relocated from the existing control centres in the five fire and rescue areas of the north west, these are Winsford, Swinton, Bootle, Preston and Cockermouth, but new jobs could also be created.

But Dave Carruthers, branch chairman of Warrington's Fire Brigade Union, said he fears that when these specialised staff retire, new recruits will lack local knowledge.

He said: "In the future when staff are recruited, it's likely they will be from around Warrington, which is great for this area.

"However, it's not so great for the people living in, for example, Cumbria.

"Also, this is untested technology. If it goes down what will happen?

"At the moment if it goes down we switch to Wakefield. We fear these centres will mean a worsening of conditions."