Police and fire services in merger talks furore

POLICE and fire service bosses have provoked an angry response after announcing proposing to share control rooms in Tayside to save on costs.

The merger plan is to be considered by Tayside police and fire boards at separate meetings on 15 November.

It follows plans unveiled by Highland Council last month to create a "single blue light" service, uniting police, fire and ambulance crews in one emergency service to serve the north of Scotland. It would share budgets, buildings and backroom staff.

Bosses of the two front-line services in Tayside claimed the control merger would save money and improve services.

But the Fire Brigades Union in Scotland's organiser Jim Malone claimed the proposals undermined a review of fire services ordered by community safety minister Fergus Ewing.

Mr Malone said: "There is absolutely no need for this announcement to be made as a decision on the future of the service nationally will come from the Holyrood government.

"For individual fire and rescue authorities, through their chief officers, to make announcements about cuts undermines the process and also undermines the confidence FBU members have in their employers.

"There are going to be decisions taken about the national consultation process and we will be involved in that and at the heart of that. But we will not see that process undermined by individual fire authorities and individual fire chiefs.

"The FBU will most definitely have a red line under these proposals - and that is no redundancies."

He added: "This announcement is unhelpful. All it has done is make 22 workers within our fire control centre in Dundee very unhappy. They were shocked by the announcement."

Tayside Police and Tayside Fire and Rescue Service said in a joint statement they would be presenting proposals to the Tayside Police and Tayside Fire and Rescue Joint Boards with a view to carrying out a feasibility study into sharing control rooms and fleet maintenance facilities.

The statement said: "Leaders from both organisations held talks earlier this year and identified a number of areas in which they could work together to not only save money, but also improve the service to the communities of Tayside." The ambulance service has not been included in the proposals. Dundee, like Aberdeen, is no longer an ambulance control hub.

Chief Constable Justine Curran said: "A range of common services are being explored. Two areas deemed to offer the greatest potential for generating financial and operating efficiencies are control room and fleet maintenance."

Stephen Hunter, Tayside's chief fire officer, said: "A detailed feasibility study will be undertaken to enable fire and police boards to evaluate options and reach necessary decisions.''