By Stefan Morkis

TAYSIDE’S FIRE Brigade Union last night underlined its opposition to plans to reduce the number of fire and rescue control rooms in Scotland, claiming the move would cost lives.

The previous administration at Holyrood had intended to change from the present eight local control rooms to regional ones, as have been introduced in England and Wales.

This would mean the end of the control room at Macalpine Road fire station in Dundee.

The new Scottish Government has not made its intentions clear over the issue but FBU officials are determined to press their case.

Union officials from across Scotland will meet Community Safety Minister Fergus Ewing in Edinburgh next week with the issue of control rooms high on the agenda.

Earlier this week Mr Ewing told the Scottish Parliament in a written answer that ministers were considering their position on control rooms to ensure Scotland was prepared to deal with simultaneous major emergencies.

John Duffy, chairman of Tayside’s FBU, will be in attendance, and FBU secretary Jim Malone said yesterday that the organisation’s position on the matter was clear.

“It isn’t rocket science—if you reduce the number of controls the equation at the end is more fire deaths, more injuries and more deaths of firefighters,” he said.

“There will also be a resultant loss of property.”

Mr Malone said that he did not expect any decision on the future of Scotland’s eight control rooms to be made but that next Wednesday’s meeting was a good opportunity to put forward their case.

“Tayside’s opinion is still that the current eight controls is the best model and the retention of this system is essential to our overall aim, of a year-on-year reduction in fire deaths.”

Mr Malone added that the new system in England and Wales had doubled in price to nearly £1 billion and the FBU believes the money needed to change over systems in Scotland would be better spent on more staff.

But he said the FBU was willing to discuss an overall review of the fire service in Scotland with ministers.

“It is a highly skilled job in the control room—they are not just call handlers,” he added.

“We don’t want to see a system introduced where you get people waiting on the line listening to Vivaldi.

“We hope the lessons have been learned from the police and the ambulance service and from down south and that the Scottish Government makes a decision independently to retain the eight control rooms.

“That is the only decision that will satisfy our members.”