MORE than £55million of taxpayers' cash is being spent on

consultants working on plans which will see emergency fire

calls made in Plymouth handled in Somerset.

The staggering cost, which could have paid for 300 new fire

engines, was revealed to MPs by the Department for Communities

and Local Government.

Nationally, the controversial project will see 46 existing

fire control centres replaced with one centre for each of nine

English regions. Devon's dedicated control room will close and

move to a regional headquarters in Taunton.

It has been admitted that the extra work involved in setting

up the regional centre is set to cost more than £8 million, and

now MPs have been told that as of the end of June, £38.5million

had so far been spent on consultants for the scheme nationally,

with a further £16.9million due to be spent on "advice".

The estimated cost of a fire engine is about £180,000, which

means an extra 308 appliances could have been bought for the

same amount – and union leaders say the sum is enough to run a

large metropolitan fire brigade for a year.

Continuing concerns have been raised at Westminster over the

regionalisation plans, with a cross-party group of MPs voicing

concerned that the new centres will be able to handle fewer

calls at peak times than existing control rooms.

The costs have been defended by the Government, which says

it is meeting all the set-up costs of the project, and insists

the new nationally-linked regional network will offer better

protection for the public and make firefighters' jobs safer and

more effective. It says the new centres will be able to track

appliances and immediately identify the location of a

caller.

Fire engines will be fitted with computers that can show

building floor plans and maps.