The Government had been planning to force the merger of Police Forces, but in the face of cross-party pressure, has now abandoned the plans. Yet it is still moving ahead with its scheme to shut down the local fire control room in Shrewsbury replacing it with a distant regional call centre based in Wolverhampton for the whole of the West Midlands.
These planned cuts to local fire services would mean that 999 calls will be answered up to 50 miles away - by operators who have little knowledge of rural Shropshire. The restructuring process will cost a massive £72 million, re-diverting resources away from frontline protection. A cross-party House of Commons Committee has now savaged these proposals, warning that they will not improve efficiency, service or civil resilience.
Mr Dunne commented: "At long last the Government has realised what a disaster police regionalisation would be. It would distract the police from doing their jobs, waste money and waste police time that should be properly dedicated to detecting and reducing crime.
But just as the scrapping of West Mercia Constabulary would have wasted millions of pounds and made policing more distant and less responsive, so the Government's plans for fire cuts and the closure of the local 999 control rooms are deeply flawed.
Labour Ministers should use the sidelining of John Prescott as an opportunity to ditch his expensive and risky project. If the Government wants to improve civil resilience, it should ensure there is greater co-ordination and collaboration between the three emergency services, rather than creating expensive and ineffective tiers of regional bureaucracy."
