West firemen dismayed at verdict to regionalise control

The Government has confirmed it will press ahead with hugely controversial and expensive plans to regionalise fire control in the West.

It also announced the end of the equally controversial recruitment quotas for fire services yesterday.

Fire Service Minister Bob Neill promised there would be no more pointless meddling and pledged to cut through red tape and bureaucracy, as he took the axe to regional management boards.

Whitehall says the move will hand power back to local areas, but firefighters continue to say the only real difference would lie in scrapping the regional control centre.

But the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) confirmed, for the first time since the election, that Labour's plans to centralise six fire control centres in Taunton, covering a huge swathe of the country from Wiltshire to the Isles of Scilly, will go ahead.

A spokesman said it was the most "cost-effective" option with the best potential results.

The Fire Brigades' Union (FBU) accused the coalition of failing to fulfil manifesto promises to scrap centres such as that in Taunton, which is costing the taxpayer £5,000 per day despite standing virtually empty.

John Drake, South West secretary of the FBU, said: "We want the Government to stop tinkering around the edges, and scrap regional fire control centres, as both parties promised they would in their manifestos. They have abolished the wrong thing."

The regional centre in Taunton has been described as a white elephant and many firefighters believe closing control centres will put lives at risk because operators will have a lack of local knowledge.

Mr Neill's decision to end recruitment quotas will reverse a decision that came to epitomise an era where public sector bodies were seen to be obsessed with political correctness.

The Western Daily Press revealed the row that erupted two years ago when the former Labour Fire Minister and Gloucester MP Parmjit Dhanda announced the recruitment quotas.

He said all fire and rescue services must hit targets for minority ethnic recruits, and bring the number of women firefighters up to 15 per cent or risk hefty fines.

At the time, only 209 of the 5,307 firefighters in the seven West services were women, and only 65 of 6,362 staff were black and Asian. There was a huge row when Avon was criticised for banning white men from recruitment sessions amid claims it would undermine race relations.

Mr Neill said yesterday he will not enforce recruitment and retention targets, or tell services how to develop their staff as employers know best how to meet workforce requirements.

He also said he would not be telling them how to manage their assets any more, and they will no longer have to work through Regional Management Boards.

It is the latest step in abolishing regional government, and follows plans to scrap the South West Regional Development Agency, Regional Assembly, Government Office for the Region and the Regional Spatial Strategy that set housing targets.

"The coalition Government is committed to stopping regional government and cutting away unnecessary layers of bureaucracy by pushing power into the hands of communities," Mr Neill said.

But the FBU insists it has missed a trick by not scrapping the regional control centre as well. It calculated that, despite not being used as a control centre, the building will cost £430,000 to run between the formation of the new coalition and MPs returning from summer recess.

Mr Drake said: "It has been an absolute fiasco throughout – it has gone through seven years, two governments, and eight fire ministers, and yet we're still paying."

A DCLG spokesman said: "The fire control centres are going ahead. The Government has calculated that the best way forward is for contractor EADS to deliver the main system, because it offers the best service and the best value for the tax payer."