TORIES PUSH THROUGH TRI-SERVICE CLOSURE

12.14.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Mon 12th May 2008

Conservative Councillors on Gloucestershire County Council today moved towards closing the Tri-Service fire control at Quedgeley.

At a Cabinet meeting on March 12th, the Tories agreed to hand over their authority to a Regional Management Board, which would proceed with figuring out how the new control centre in Taunton should be run.

The Liberal Democrats on Gloucestershire County Council tried to slow down this, by using a "call-in", forcing the decision to be discussed at today's meeting of the Overview and Management Scrutiny Committee. However, Conservative Councillors have now pushed the plan through with Labour abstaining, making it more likely that Gloucestershire's fire control will be moved away from Quedgeley, to southern Somerset.

Councillor Jeremy Hilton, leader of the Liberal Democrats on Gloucestershire County Council said "It's a shame that it's come to this. The Tories claim to want to defend the centre at Quedgeley, but when it came to the crunch they capitulated to the Fire Minister Parmjit Dhanda MP. They've given in, and given up the fight. We're going to lose our local fire control, and all the benefits that brings us - shame on them."

Councillor Bill Crowther, group spokesman on Community Safety agreed. "This was the likely result," he said, "but that doesn't make it any less damaging to the people of Gloucestershire. We're all going to be affected by this, and the people of Gloucestershire deserve better than to get a two-party stitch up pushing through something they don't want. We should be keeping oversight and authority in this council, and not delegating it away"