Further to news last year of government grants available to local authorities to upgrade facilities at fire control rooms, this in from the council. In their own words. Ed
The Isle of Wight Council has been awarded government grant of nearly £1 million to improve the Island’s Fire and Rescue Service.
The money from the Department of Communities Local Government will enable the service to create two high-tech incident command centres in Newport and Ryde and provide crews with the latest ‘Toughbook’ mobile information systems.
The cash follows a successful bid to Government for a share of money announced last year that was earmarked for councils who came up with schemes to make their service more efficient and more resilient.
Grant supports transfer to Surrey
The grant will also finance the council’s transfer of its control room function to more advanced and resilient facilities hosted by Surrey Fire and Rescue Service.
It has also been agreed that three staff who currently work in the Island’s control room will transfer to Surrey as part of the move.
Had to prove “we are willing and able to modernise”
“This is welcome news which recognises the council’s determination to provide the Island with most efficient and resilient fire service possible,” said councillor Barry Abraham, Isle of Wight Council cabinet member responsible for the Island’s Fire and Rescue Service.
“Quite simply, we would not have been awarded this money if we were not able to prove that we are willing and able to modernise. The service has improved dramatically in recent years – as it had to if we were to retain the service under our control. This investment is government recognition that the service is being well run effectively and efficiently from the Island for the Island.”
CCTV linked to command centre
Chief fire officer Steve Apter explained that the technology in the new incident command centre could include screens linked to the Island CCTV network that could relay images of actual emergencies as they unfolded. This could help manage such emergencies and also provide footage from which lessons could be learned. The command centre will be linked to other emergency services, and be large enough to function as a multi-agency ‘silver’ command facility for major incidents on the Island.
With the new technology, individual fire appliances could also be tracked from the new command centres and diverted to incidents as they happened if their location was nearest to that emergency.
“Supports ongoing improvement”
Steve said: “This funding supports the ongoing improvement to the service on the Island and we are obviously delighted that our bid for this money was successful.”
“We can focus on using technology to enhance our service, which not only supports our operational response activities in command, control and communications but just as importantly, in our community safety and preventative work through improving our ability to target our resources better.”
Commenting on the transfer of staff to Surrey, Isle of Wight Council director of economy and the environment Stuart Love said: “While ‘local knowledge’ is not an operational issue I am sure that some residents will take comfort from the fact that staff who have been working at the existing control room will be transferring their expertise to the new arrangement in Surrey.”
The switchover to Surrey is due to take place on the 4th March, while it is anticipated the programme of investment in the new incident command centres and purchase of new Toughbooks will begin early in the summer.
Image: Taxbrackets.org under CC BY 2.0
