HRFU

This website represents the views of Hampshire Retained Fire Fighters Union

From HFRS web site (just so you know the facts)...

The project will replace the forty-six fire control rooms in England, based at local fire brigades, with nine new amalgamated Regional Control Centres. There will be one Regional Control Centre for the South East which will replace the existing control rooms in Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Royal Berkshire, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire.

From our newsletter (February 05)

Regionalisation of our Fire Control Centre is still going ahead. As is well known the reduction of 46 controls to 9 is being progressed despite much concern at all levels in the fire Service and indeed from the employers. The RFU does not support the regionalisation of controls, however, the RFU does see the benefits of some rationalisation.

An article in Private Eye magazine on what it calls privatisation of Fire Controls adds to the feeling that all is not well.

The article in Private Eye says that a Government report from the ODPM indicates that the Firecontrol Project has a very high risk of total project failure at a possible cost of £754 million.

Private Eye said that it has obtained the government’s list of possible bidders for the running of regional control rooms. The idea of private enterprise running control rooms in itself is not a pleasing thought.

Private Eye stated that American bidder, SAIC, who had the contract for the Iraq Media Network removed from them because, as the Pentagon said, it wasted money and was amateurish. Private Eye went on to mention another American firm; Northrop Grumman that is on the list of bidders, this company’s subsidiary, Vinnel, performed badly in Iraq and was subsequently replaced by the Jordanian Army. Northrop itself has been repeatedly fined by the US government, $20 million for supplying defective equipment and $60 million for overcharging for warship work.

The Private Eye article may be correct in part or in its entirety. However, it seems to be contradicted by the information from the Regional Management Board (RMB). The RMB is currently considering the type of Governance appropriate for managing Regional Control Centres (RCC), Company limited by shares (CLS), Company limited by guarantee (CLG), Unlimited Company, Partnership.

The information that our Fire Authority members are receiving seems disposed towards a corporate structure with RMB members as directors. There is even a mention of a not for profit clause, I hope that this is not too big a disappointment to the capitalist bidders for our control rooms. As Private Eye would say, “perhaps we should be told”.

Fire Control Row Deepens, see an article from the BBC website in February 2005.	Click here