Government urged to keep fire comms open

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Government urged to reverse call centre decision
BY MICHAEL CLEGGETT
http://www.bluemountainsgazette.com.au/news/local/news/general/government-urg...

Plans to close the Fire and Rescue NSW (FRNSW) emergency call centre at Katoomba have been condemned with the council urging the state government to reverse its decision.
But Liberal Blue Mountains MP Roza Sage said she was confident emergency response times would not suffer when the centre closed in mid-2012 and would eventually be improved with the decision to upgrade Springwood Fire Station.

Councillors had earlier backed a motion at last week’s council meeting calling on the government to reverse its decision and asking for support from Mrs Sage and Opposition Leader John Robertson.

Labor councillor Mark Greenhill said the issue was about protecting the community rather than a political one.

“During the period of the Labor government this issue arose and I supported an urgency motion then calling on the Labor government not to do this,” said Clr Greenhill.

“It does not matter who is in power – Labor, Liberal or Callithumpian. This is a community issue.

“Liberal councillors backed my motion the other night and I expect Blue Mountains Liberals would support this just as Blue Mountains Labor would.”

Blue Mountains Labor spokeswoman Trish Doyle joined the outcry against what she called a “reckless decision” to close the call centre.

“I condemn this decision by the O’Farrell Government,” said Ms Doyle.

“It would appear that we will lose some of our highly trained and experienced communications officers who know the Blue Mountains very well and have managed the major fire and storm incidents in the Mountains for the past 15 years.

“The issue of timely service delivery to the Blue Mountains, with staff positioned in Newcastle and Sydney, is of grave concern.”

But Mrs Sage said she had been assured by FRNSW that an overhaul of its call and dispatch systems would ensure emergency response times in the Mountains were not negatively affected.

The upgrade of Springwood Fire Station will create 21 new positions, four more than will be lost as a result of the call centre closure. Mrs Sage said it was a positive result for local employment.

Posted via email from The Left Hack