FIRE chiefs have admitted that a controversial new control room system has not always been sending the nearest appliance to 999 call-outs in Lancashire.

All emergency call-outs for the county are now handled at a North West Fire Control Centre in Warrington after Lancashire’s base at Broughton was axed last spring.

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But the county brigade has missed response time targets for both the first and second appliances arriving on the scene at incidents for the second quarter of this year - and ‘special service’ emergencies, which may involve turntable ladders or water rescue crews.

Fire authority performance committee members have been told that often full-time fire engines were being sent instead of retained crews, which may be geographically closer, because of faults with an automatic vehicle location system.

But since August the service - which says it may have been relying on ‘overly optimistic road speeds’ - has been undertaking ‘extensive work’ to tackle the issue.

Steve Harman, Fire Brigades Union (FBU) branch secretary, said: “We were always concerned that losing the mobilising service in Lancashire, and the local knowledge of experienced staff, was going to be a problem.

“Some left the industry, some transferred to Warrington. But we used to have 40 staff just for Lancashire alone, and they could be rushed off their feet.

“Now we just have 50 staff to cover most of the North West region.”

Mr Harman fears that government cutbacks are gradually eroding the county’s fire brigade - leading to a ‘worsening’ of the service for the general public.

Chris Kenny, Lancashire’s chief fire officer, said: “None of these issues have impacted adversely on the public and the shortfalls have been promptly identified and put right, when a year-long dispute between the Fire Brigades Union and Government has put our resources at full stretch.

“Four consecutive 24-hour strikes by FBU members during which resilience firefighters dealt with the Birley Street foundry fire in Blackburn and a severe house fire in Haslingen along with other incidents, were immediately followed by Bonfire Night and throughout NWFC dealt with their most busy and challenging time of the year with great credit.”