Suffolk Fire and Rescue Service plan to bring control room back to county

Plans for a fire and rescue service's control centre to return to the county it covers have been announced.

Suffolk Fire and Rescue Service has shared a control room with Cambridgeshire and Peterborough in Huntingdon since 2011.

The county council said the arrangement had worked but some technology issues meant they wanted to create a new advanced facility.

The Cambridgeshire service said it was "surprised and concerned".

The authority said the joint project had worked well, saving both fire services money and enabling greater cross border resource sharing.

It said it made the decision to end the arrangement after the company behind a project to deliver a new IT system, initiated in 2019, ran into technical and financial problems, causing a significant delay.

In addition, advancements in technology mean they want to bring fire control back into the county by the end of 2024.

A new control room, with its own market tried and tested fire engine mobilisation software, will mean modernised IT systems and improved public and firefighter safety, the council said.

Councillor Andrew Reid, cabinet member for fire and public protection, said it had "enjoyed a successful partnership" which had "served as a national example of how well sharing resources across counties could work".

"It is time, however, to bring fire control back into our county and under direct Suffolk leadership," he said.

"We are committed to delivering the most effective and efficient services to our residents, and in this case it is essential that we strive to find and develop a solution which is robust, sustainable and works for Suffolk."

Chief fire officer, Jon Lacey, added: "This decision has not been taken lightly and will take time to implement, however, we are confident it is achievable and the right way forward.

"Communities in Suffolk will not be impacted by this decision. We remain committed to providing excellent prevention, protection, and response to our residents."

Suffolk County Council's cabinet will consider the plans in September.

Cambridgeshire Fire and Rescue Service said the collaboration had saved £12m and delivered an effective and efficient service so it "remained open to further cooperation".

Its fire authority chair, councillor Edna Murphy said: "We had no notice of Suffolk's intentions and would have preferred to discuss the way forward together.

"We will continue with the implementation of our new control system and will try to minimise the impact of the extra costs on service provision."

Chief fire officer, Chris Strickland, added that the decision had been a "complete surprise".

"There have been some delays implementing the new control system, mainly due to the Covid pandemic, current economic climate and some internal structure changes within the supplier's organisation, however things are now progressing well and we hope to have the system live in early 2024," he said.

Mr Strickland said the collaboration saved the service at least £500k a year which is "not an insignificant amount of money that will now need to be found year on year".

"It is too early to say how we will find this additional money, but we will review our financial business continuity plans and see how this can be funded," he said.

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