Safe Speed Forums

If you share my concerns regarding the possible closure of the fire control room at Cockermouth, you can vote and comment on the Cumbria County Council website. http://www.cumbria.gov.uk/consultation/strawpoll.asp
Although this affects us here in Cumbria, Fire Control rooms all over Britain are under threat, as there are moves afoot to reduce control to just four national centres.
Now many of you might have tried to explain to the operator at the RAC control centre if you have broken down. Do they EVER have a clue where you are?
Well that is the risk involved here. New technology is great if your house is on fire, and you can ring with a post code. But what if you are a stranger to the area, and wish to report a fire, and dont know street names, landmarks etc?

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Time to take responsibility for our actions.. and don't be afraid of speaking out!

Agreed - a very bad move to close the local control centres.

Not forgetting the American report in the aftermath of 9/11 when they concluded they needed more local centres, not fewer regional ones.

Local knowledge is key, especially when dealing with incidents in a large rural county like Cumbria, with many visitors etc who won't know where they are!

For a rural county, Cumbria has its fair share of potential fire exposures. 2 particularly large incidents already this year - the Carlisle flooding and just last night, major bakery fire in Carlisle.

Keep it local, definately....

I am assuming that mobile phone technology is sufficiently capable of routing a three nines call for the FB to the nearest local centre? It should be.

I believe ALL 999 calls go first to an operator, who asks which service you require, and you are then transfered to the apropriate service - it was last time I made a triple nine call.

In a rural area, a stranger is at a real disadvantage when trying to give information about their position. A remote control room is at a disadvantage too, worsening the problem.
There were enough problems when the police moved all calls to Penrith.
I once spent 5 minutes describing to the operator at Penrith, where Ings was on the A591. She would not accept between Kendal and Windermere, she wanted to know the distance, the spelling, and where abouts in Ings I was! I was in the filling station, and ANY of the police likely to attend would know instantly where it was!
Take that call centre to Manchester, and there would likely be fire appliances going astray unless you could give a post code, or grid reference!

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Time to take responsibility for our actions.. and don't be afraid of speaking out!

Yes. a 999 call is routed to an operator - from a mobile or land line. I have on a few occasions felt it my dsuty to call the emergency services from the car when I've spotted something I didn't like the look of (suspected stolen car, smoke from the woods, a bloke looking intent on plummeting off a bridge over the road) - and I have, by fortune, been able to describe precisely where the incident in question was. To that end, I do not know if I've been talking to a regional or very central base. It might even have been a call-centre in India in one case. However, I'm entirely with EM regarding the local centres being best. I remain to be convinced that a call from a mobile on the move will be routed to the right local centre.