In My View
Posted by Robert Walter, MP for North Dorset, at 08:57, Wed 22 October 2008:
IN MY VIEW
I have always been sceptical about the proposed South West regional FiReControl Project. It may have some laudable aims at its root and I agree that improved communications may be required to meet future challenges. However, if this move means the sacrifice of a single fire engine, or any enforced cut in essential services that will put more Dorset lives at risk, I would be wholly remiss in my duty as an elected representative to support this move.
I have added my voice to the concerns expressed by both Dorset Fire and Rescue Service and Dorset Fire Authority regarding plans for this Regional Control Centre. In my view it is totally unacceptable that in the aftermath of a series of tragic and unprecedented fire deaths in Dorset our fire brigade should be being pressed, as a result of Government policy, to make further cuts to pay for it.
For this reason I support the decision to withhold support for this project until the Government bridges the funding gap that will be the direct result of a policy originally designed to save money. The South West was selected as one of three regions that would take part in ‘phase I’ of this development, with all six of its fire services – including Dorset – to move to a brand new centre in Taunton by a target date of 2010. Yet continued criticism of the move from Dorset Fire Service and local MPs across the political divide has cast strong doubts over the benefits of this project.
Not only does the business case not provide the promised saving of 30 per cent for fire brigades that would allow them to allocate more money to community safety, but further forecasts predict the shift to Taunton could actually end up costing the six authorities upwards of £200,000.
In my view this goes completely against the Government’s promise that regionalisation would save money. It will place an increased burden on Dorset in particular; whose fire service received the lowest grant settlement in the country following 2007’s funding settlement, an increase of just half of one per cent.
Having lobbied hard - but sadly unsuccessfully - for an increased settlement, I am incensed that Dorset is now being expected to subsidise a project driven by Central Government when it is already working to such an incredibly tight budget. With efficiency savings already made, further pressure on the budget will undoubtedly force Dorset into reducing key areas of activity. I believe that this is something no Fire Service should be forced to do.
We now have a Department of Energy and Climate Change and the new Secretary of State Ed Milliband has announced that we will reduce carbon emissions by 80 per cent by 2050. This is a laudable aim and I will support his endeavour if he promises not to cover the beautiful Dorset countryside with ugly inefficient industrial wind turbines.
The UK is making great strides in off shore wind generations and we are now looking seriously at tidal and wave energy. But let’s not forget that on shore wind projects, like the one proposed at Silton in north Dorset, are only viable with a 60 per cent subsidy.
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