HOW many readers have had to dial 999 and ask for the fire brigade? Of those who have, have they ever wondered where that call is received?

Currently, it is near Exeter at the control room of the Devon Fire and Rescue Service, where the highly trained professional staff identify the location and dispatch fire appliances to an incident, often in less than a minute.

Within the next two or three years, all that will be at an end. In the latest of Government attempts to save money, plans are well in hand to combine the control rooms of seven counties of Devon, Cornwall, Somerset, Dorset, Avon, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire in one large regional control to be located at a site to be decided.

This will inevitably result in yet another lowering of a service to the public. All the local knowledge for the area will be lost.

The office of the Deputy Prime Minister promises that first class mobilising systems will be put in place and local knowledge will not be needed. Indeed, Mr Prescott has said that London has been centralised for some time and it works well. It probably does, because all London has named streets, so it is very easy to type a given street name into a database and be given the correct response.

However, the computer has to be invented that can help an operator, (who is maybe, a couple of hundred miles away), locate the tourist who has been involved in an accident, his car has gone off the road and his family are trapped inside. All he can say is that he left Tavistock about ten minutes ago and he doesn?t know which road he is on, but he can see a hill with what appears to be a church on it.

At least one person on duty in a county control would recognise that description, would anyone in a control room located near Bristol be able to do so?

Recently, several MPs have voiced their doubts about the safety of these regional controls, which by the way may not even be run by the fire service.

Please write to your MP and ask where he stands on the matter - lives will be at risk if this plan goes ahead.

Janet Booth

25 Chestnut Close

Bishopsmead