Local control centres across the country are set to merge

The Local Government Association (LGA) conference will debate plans for large call centres in the South East and South West replacing county sites.

The government says this will increase efficiency and cut costs.

The meeting in Portsmouth on Tuesday and Wednesday will hear LGA members' concerns about the plan's financial implications and how it will work.

It's a large scale information technology project with many unknowns involved Martin Burrell West Sussex Fire Officer

Meanwhile the Fire Brigades Union is bitterly opposed to the plan, saying staff in the large regional centres would not have necessary local knowledge and lives would be put at risk.

Local Government Minister Nick Raynsford will address the LGA's Annual Fire Conference on Wednesday.

An LGA spokesman said the organisation "supports the successful implementation of an agreed and affordable project."

He admitted there had been disquiet among some authorities which would be reflected at the meeting.

Some authorities have criticised it as merely a cost cutting exercise, while others were concerned that it would actually end up costing more than the current system, he said.

'Many unknowns'

The Chief Fire Officer of West Sussex, Martin Burrell, said his authority would be raising their concerns at the meeting about cost and workability.

"It's a large scale information technology project with many unknowns involved," he said.

He said the the plans had some major advantages, particularly in dealing with a large disaster or terrorist attack, but it was still not clear how the service would work.

He said they still needed answers on how the interaction between fire, police and ambulance services would work under the new system.

The plan would see control rooms in Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Berkshire, Surrey, Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, West and East Sussex and Kent merged to form a single centre for the South East.

Meanwhile, Dorset, Wiltshire, Gloucestershire, Avon, Somerset, Devon and Cornwall would be formed into a centre for the South West.