CONTROVERSIAL plans to axe the county’s emergency fire control room and replace it with a regional call-handling centre have been condemned by firefighters.

Frontline officers say the Whitehall-backed proposals, which will see Lancashire’s Broughton control centre make way for a North West operation at Warrington, will damage the brigade’s chances of reaching 999 calls promptly.

Under the scheme, every local control room nationwide would be shut and replaced by one of eight regional call centres.

Now the firefighters’ union has completed a survey of members which shows confidence in the government’s scheme is “incredibly low”.

The government wants to close all 46 emergency fire control rooms in England and replace them with just 8 regional centres outside London.

The union survey says 95 per cent of the firefighters in the North West think this will worsen the response of the fire and rescue service to incidents, and 92 per cent think it will worsen safety for firefighters.

FBU regional secretary Kevin Brown said: “This is the authentic voice of the men and women who save lives every day, and it is telling the government not just to change course, but to change its whole approach.

"They want resources to go into frontline personnel, training and equipment to do the job, which are being cut; not into extravagant and untried mammoth computer systems and the army of consultants required to explain why they do not work properly.”

Asked what were the four best ways of spending money on improving the fire and rescue service, almost nine out of 10 said more training, three quarters said more frontline equipment, and six out of 10 said modern and safe personal radios.

Just one in 33 suggested moving to regional control centres.

YouGov interviewed 1,969 FBU members for the survey.

What effect do think the switch would have on 999 responses? Add your comments below.