Councils to fight decision to axe 999 control rooms
A major campaign to overturn the hugely controversial axing of the Highlands’ fire and police 999 command rooms has kicked off and it could end up in court.
Highland Council’s opposition group has joined forces with local authorities across the north of Scotland, including the Western Isles, Orkney and Shetland, to fight the closures of the region’s emergency call-handling bases in Inverness, which sparked an outcry last month.
Independent leader Carolyn Wilson said the loss of local staff and their knowledge of the region was of huge concern to Highland communities and wants the support of the council’s SNP/Liberal Democrat/Labour administration in the campaign, which is also being backed by Aberdeen City Council.
The Granite city authority, which is set to lose its own 999 bases, will investigate whether the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) and Police Scotland decisions can be legally challenged, possibly through a judicial review at the Court of Session.
The national emergency services, which were created by the SNP Scottish government less than a year ago, have come under heavy fire for the cost-cutting moves.
SFRS’ 999 room in Inverness will shut with the loss of 19 posts and calls diverted to Dundee instead, while the police command room will also be axed.
However, Police Scotland also confirmed a national incident centre creating around 50 jobs would be set up in Inverness instead.
Councillor Wilson said Aberdeen’s Labour-led coalition would share the legal advice received and hoped the campaign efforts would ape the successful fight to save the region’s coastguard stations at Stornoway and Shetland in 2011.
The Independents will table a motion at the full council meeting on 13th March seeking support.
"We as the opposition are looking to see what Highland Council are going to do," said Councillor Wilson, who added there was widespread backing for a merged Highland and Islands’ emergency centre in Inverness, which was proposed by the council’s administration last year.
Lib Dem group leader David Alston pledged its backing for the campaign and said he was hopeful the different groups would speak with a united voice. "It is very clear our position about the retention of emergency centres," said Councillor Alston, who is the authority’s depute leader. "It is important that the Independents speak to us because this needs to happen now, I am not sure we can wait until next month."
SNP group leader Drew Hendry said the closures had to be placed in the context of Police Scotland’s new major incident centre in Inverness.
"Clearly, we would like to have both if we could," said Councillor Hendry, who welcomed talks with the Independents but warned "a sense of realism" about the situation had to be accepted.
"The national command centre is going to be bringing more jobs in the area, we are still pushing for more jobs on top of that and will continue. It is a terrific good news story."
The command centre announcement, which came at the same time as the 999 closures were confirmed, had sparked a clash between the Lib Dem and SNP leaders.
Councillor Alston was unhappy about Councillor Hendry’s remarks that the new facility was "a bigger prize" and accused him of having a political brass neck. They agreed afterwards to "strongly disagree" on the emergency reform announcements.
