EMERGENCY calls to the fire service in the north of Scotland will be handled up to 140 miles away in Dundee from November, the country's fire chief has announced.
The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) revealed the latest stage of a merger that form part of a savings plan to cut control rooms across Scotland from eight to three, with facilities in Dumfries, Thornton in Fife and Maddiston in Falkirk already closed.
The fire service previously estimated moving to a single call-handling system in the remaining operations centres in Edinburgh, Dundee and Johnstone would save £2.3 million and cost 60 jobs.
Union chiefs for Scottish firefighters are seeking assurances that safety will not be compromised and that local knowledge will not be lost by calls from the north of Scotland being handled elsewhere.
The Aberdeen control room will shut on November 8 and the Inverness facility will cease taking calls on December 6, with calls for both areas then being answered in Dundee.
It is understood the closing control rooms will remain open, but not live, for 24 hours after their deadline dates so they can be reactivated if necessary.
Those who have chosen to remain in Inverness and Aberdeen will be offered new roles within the service.
Staff will undergo training and pool their knowledge of the risks and geography of each area, while systems will be improved to capture local knowledge, landmarks and "locally known as" addresses.
The move will see control staff from Dundee, Inverness and Aberdeen merged in a new, state-of-the-art facility in Dundee by March.
Alasdair Hay, Chief Officer of the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, visited both Aberdeen and Inverness to address staff ahead of the migration.
“This major investment will without doubt further enhance our protection across the north of Scotland," he said.
“We look forward to combining our capabilities from across Dundee, Aberdeen and Inverness into this fantastic facility in Dundee.
“It can deploy our specialist resources not only from across the north – but from across the whole of Scotland - at times of significant emergency.”
He added: “This announcement is the culmination of a very great deal of planning and preparation – and the public can rest assure that there will be no change to the outstanding service that we provide, and we will continue to attend every 999 call ahead of the launch of our new operations control at Dundee in March.
“It really is a landmark occasion and we hope that our communities take great comfort from a national service that keeps going from strength to ever greater strength.
"I have made it clear to them (staff) that their role is critical to the very success of this important project.”
Pat Watters, chair of the SFRS board, said: “As a board, we are absolutely committed to delivering this state-of-the-art facility at Dundee, which will give our communities the protection they absolutely deserve.
“It was therefore a great pleasure to meet with our operations control staff at Inverness and Aberdeen today. They, and their colleagues across Scotland, are to be thoroughly commended for not only their professionalism but their unstinting dedication.”
Chris McGlone, executive council member of FBUS, said there are concerns over a lack of staff in the service.
"We have already had some issues with staff.
"We have always been concerned that going from eight control rooms to three could potentially cause problems, particularly in the north of Scotland.
"We will be seeking reassurances that suitable measures will be put in place to support staff."
The SFRS said emergency calls will not be affected during this transition phase and that the migrating control will remain on - but not live - for approximately 24 hours so that it can be reactivated if necessary.
It said operational control room staff will undertake training and pool knowledge on particular risks and geography of each area and existing service gazetteer systems will be improved to capture local knowledge, landmarks and “locally known as” addresses.
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