Fire brigade mergers are 'inevitable' claims chief

THE new boss of Lothian and Borders Fire and Rescue Service has said it is "inevitable" that brigades will merge to combat savage budget cuts.

Jimmy Campbell, who took up the head post three weeks ago, told the Evening News that the country's fire services - including firefighters, control room, human relations and IT departments - would have to join forces due to potentially "catastrophic" funding cuts over the next four years.

In the worst-case scenario, Lothian and Borders could lose up to 12 million of funding.

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Mr Campbell said he saw a merger, most likely with Fife and Central branches, as the best way of saving money while keeping up a high quality service. He said: "I don't think this would be an extreme move, although the changes would be significant. Front line services will merge, it is inevitable.

"There is no practical reason why the fire services can't work together. The economic benefits are clear. For starters, you wouldn't need eight fire chiefs.

"At the moment we are doing things eight times over. It is possible that one giant super service could be created."

Mr Campbell said the back office workers, including those from personnel, HR and IT departments, should merge first. He believes firefighters working on front line services would join together shortly after.

He said: "Merging just the back office workers would not save enough money in light of these cuts, so the solution is to merge the frontliners too. A lot of fire services already work closely together and their procedures and policies are the same, so it is doable."

The fire boss believes there will be three fire services operating across Scotland from 2012 instead of the current eight.

Mr Campbell said he hoped the radical changes to back office personnel would prevent the closure of any fire stations or a reduction in the numbers of firefighters. If a 25 per cent budget cut is announced, however, the service might have to look at these options. He pointed out that senior, more costly roles, would go first.

Exactly how much funding will be slashed is due to be announced in October. Cuts of between 12 and 25 per cent are expected.

Mr Campbell said: "If 25 per cent was to go, it would be catastrophic. The changes would be quite radical."