Fire agreement fails to allay cost concerns

FiReControl programme will consolidate 46 control rooms into nine

European defence group EADS has won the £200m, eight-year IT contract for the FiReControl scheme that will consolidate local fire service control rooms.

The deal was originally expected to be signed in January 2005, and late last year the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) admitted the cost had risen by £70m. The final contract, announced last week, adds another £10m to December’s estimate.

FiReControl will consolidate the 46 local control rooms into nine regional centres.

‘The technology will help identify the location of incidents more quickly and precisely, ensure the correct equipment is mobilised as fast as possible, and provide firefighters with information on the incident location,’ said fire minister Angela Smith.

The DCLG says the cost of technology upgrades for all 46 control rooms would be more than double that of FiReControl. But local fire services are concerned that even the increased contract value does not give the true price of the programme.

Internal reports seen by Computing earlier this year questioned whether local services had the resources for migration (Computing, 18 January). And now the deal is in place, fire service insiders remain concerned.

Avon Fire and Rescue will not sign up to FiReControl until the full business case is produced, says chairman Terry Walker.

‘We are not convinced and we do not think it is a cheaper option. It is lunacy to go ahead without knowing what the real cost is – this deal is only for control rooms’ IT, we do not know what local maintenance costs will be, for example,’ he said.

The Fire Brigades’ Union says IT budgets must not cut corners.

‘Our concern over the FiReControl IT is not that too much money has been spent, but that it will be shoehorned into an unrealistic budget, leading to problems,’ said a spokesman.