Plans are in the pipeline to modernise Scotland's fire service

Jeff Ord told MSPs Scotland's brigades could rely on one control room as recommended in a Scottish Executive report to modernise the service.

He told the Justice 1 Committee single control rooms elsewhere in the UK and in the large Strathclyde region showed the country could have fewer centres.

The executive recently closed a public consultation on the proposals.

Speaking to the committee on Tuesday, Mr Ord said: "The evidence is there that you can sustain or improve the service, that you can do it more efficiently.

"I know that one control room for Scotland would work."

Central fears

However, he added the plans recommended by consultants Mott MacDonald in the report would "inevitably" lead to less staff taking calls.

Firemasters and the Fire Brigades Union oppose the plans fearing centralising call operators will lead to a potentially dangerous loss of local knowledge, such as unofficial place names, as well as problems with dialects and accents.

Critics also question the level of supposed financial benefits and claim the consultants have underestimated control room staff's functions outside of handling 999 calls and despatching crews.

Jeff Ord believes brigades could be run from one control room

The Chief Fire Officers Association has described the Mott MacDonald report as "fundamentally flawed" while the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (Cosla) has vowed to oppose any moves which simply centralised powers away from councils.

Councillor Julie Sturrock, Cosla's task group chairwoman, told the politicians the body still had to reach a formal position on the plans.

She said: "It would be very difficult to say whether it was either a bad thing or a good thing based on the information we have at the moment, which is sketchy.

"But at the moment most people are very fearful that if, in fact, it were a bad thing it would be too late to undo, especially since we know the control rooms at the moment work, and are part and parcel of an integrated management within each of the eight brigades."

Mr Ord insisted many of the fears bordered on the "mythical" and told MSPs Mott MacDonald was "probably one of the most renowned consultants for emergency service command and control centres."

Arguments dismissed

He argued the Strathclyde control room, which replaced five control rooms with one around 20 years ago, currently took 48% of 999 calls in Scotland, then three centres could certainly manage all of the country's calls.

He dismissed arguments about local knowledge, insisting this came from databases built up and maintained by all fire service staff.

Mr Ord said: "There is no evidence in the large control rooms, be it Strathclyde, London or Northern Ireland, that the local knowledge is lost or diluted.