Minister for Local Government and Communities Carl Sargeant AM will visit the Joint Communications Centre at St Asaph on Monday 27 June to officially launch a new collaborative  project between the three command and control operations of all three fire and rescue services in Wales.

The project sees the three fire and rescue services operating a seamless system of mutual support which will not only benefit the people of Wales but is also at the very forefront of collaborative working in the UK.

This follows a significant change recently in the operational and regulatory environments within which the fire and rescue services operate, with implications for both frontline fire-fighters and the command and control operations that receive emergency 999 calls.

Funded via a grant from the Welsh Government, the resilience project began in late 2009 and has involved upgrading all the computer and communication systems used to process emergency 999 calls at the three fire service control rooms in Wales and linking them together.

As a result, in the unlikely event of a serious system failure at any of the fire and rescue service control rooms, or if any receives significantly higher call volumes as can occur in times of high activity such as flooding or gorse fires, then one of the other two control rooms can automatically receive and process its 999 calls from the public.

Commenting on this important improvement to the resilience of the Joint Communications Centre at St Asaph, Assistant Chief Fire Officer Colin Hanks who led the project for North Wales Fire and Rescue Service stated;

“The delivery of this all Wales resilience project is a significant step towards collaborative working that will undoubtedly benefit all of our communities.

“As well as our work with local partners North Wales Police in the Joint Communications Centre, we have now linked up with our colleagues in Mid and West Wales and South Wales to provide a seamless system of mutual support that means we are leading the way in the UK in terms of collaborative working.

“The three fire and rescue services in Wales have an increasingly important role in protecting their communities. Prolonged periods of severe weather are now more common and often result in widespread flooding and fires across rural areas. The additional Assembly funded investments that have now been made in linking the three fire and rescue service control rooms together and enhancing the computer systems will significantly improve the ability of all our control rooms to meet such challenges and maintain a consistent 999 service to the public we serve.

“This collaborative control room project will also generally improve the ability of the fire and rescue services in Wales to offer each other mutual assistance in operationally difficult conditions, including the shared availability of fire crews and appliances.”

Minister for Local Government and Communities Carl Sargeant added: “It is great to see the £2 million that the Welsh Government has invested in this project coming to fruition. Linking the fire and rescue control centres across Wales is a welcome step in the right direction. It will significantly improve their ability to offer a first class emergency service to the Welsh public.

"In the current financial climate it is important that we do all we can to ensure that all resources are used wisely as we strive to maintain the critical emergency services that protect our communities.

"I am proud to say that this project is a first for the UK and has attracted a good deal of interest from fire services across England and Scotland.”

The fire service control room resilience project has cost just over £1.8 million and went live on 19th May 2011 after a series of scenario based exercises had been successfully completed. Just as the operations of the St Asaph fire service control room can be supported in periods of high call volumes, so too can the operations at the control rooms in South and Mid and West Wales.

North Wales Fire and Rescue Service has shared an operational floor with North Wales Police since October 2008, representing an innovative approach to joint emergency service working with North Wales leading the way in 999 operations.

There is now a concerted move for greater collaboration between all the ‘blue light’ emergency control rooms in Wales in order to secure service delivery improvements and efficiency benefits. The fire service project is considered to be a preliminary step towards this longer term objective.