Regional Control Centre and FireLink

As part of the Government plans for modernisation of the Fire & Rescue Service, Gloucestershire’s Fire Control Centre is to be replaced by a regional centre, covering the South West of England, which will be located on the Blackbrook Office Park, Taunton, Somerset.

In 1999, the Government carried out a review of fire control rooms, resulting in a report which was published in April 2000. Following this, in December 2002, Sir George Bain carried out a further review of the fire service, entitled ‘The Future of the Fire Service: Reducing Risk, Saving Lives’. In 2003 the Government published their white paper entitled; ‘Our Fire and Rescue Service’, which included a recommendation that the fire and rescue service move to a network of regional control centres.

The project, known as FiReControl, started early in 2004 and will replace the existing 46 fire control centres in England with nine regional centres. This means that there will be one centre serving the South West, instead of the seven that currently exist (Avon, Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Gloucestershire, Somerset and Wiltshire). The nine regional centres will all be new constructions, built to high standards of security and resilience. They will also be networked, so that they can provide backup support to each other in the event of busy periods or system problems.

The fit-out of the control room in the South West is now complete. The target date for cutover to the new centre for Gloucestershire is currently October 2011.

Further Information about the FiReControl project can be found on the website at
http://www.communities.gov.uk/fire/resilienceresponse/firecontrol/ and http://www.swfirecontrol.co.uk/

A new national radio system (known as Firelink) is also being installed, this will provide all fire & rescue services across England, Wales and Scotland with the ability to communicate across fire service boundaries, and will enhance communication between other emergency services and third party organisations. Mobile data terminals, providing mapping, vehicle location information, road routing and risk information, will be fitted to every fire engine and other front-line emergency vehicles. The installation of this equipment for Gloucestershire will be complete by May 2009 and full switchover will take place in October 2011 to coincide with the move of the Control room to Taunton.

Further information about the FireLink project can be found on the website at www.communities.gov.uk/fire/resilienceresponse/firelinkimprovedfire/