THE transfer of Oxfordshire's fire control room to a regional base in Hampshire will undermine efforts to tackle future flooding, the Government has been warned.

The county's control room in Kidlington is due to be merged with eight others across the South East into a massive regional centre in Fareham in 2011.

The centre will cover an area of nearly 20,000 square km, home to more than eight million people.

But last night Conservatives claimed the move would hamper emergency responses to large-scale floods like those which devastated parts of Oxfordshire last month.

Eric Pickles, the Shadow Secretary of State for Local Government, said: "The Labour Government's expensive plans for the regionalisation of the fire control services are deeply flawed.

"I fear it could actually undermine the effectiveness of the emergency services in tackling incidents like floods - where co-operation between the local authority, fire, police and ambulance services is essential."

He cited a cross-party report published last year, which said combining the three emergency services in existing control rooms would be more effective.

Mr Pickles said: "Local tri-service centres could do far more to improve resilience than creating distant call centres based on the arbitrary regional government boundaries."

Government ministers claimed the regional centres - which will serve eight areas across England - will strengthen technology, and improve and speed up responses to major incidents.

Oxfordshire's chief fire officer John Parry said: "Overall, I still have concerns regarding the cost-effectiveness of a regional control room because of the existing low cost, high-quality service provided by the Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue control room.

"I am very proud of the response to the recent flooding, but I accept that a very major incident response would have greater resilience if delivered regionally."

Colin Thomas, from Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue, said: "The county council and the fire and rescue service are working hard on the project to get the best results for Oxfordshire, incorporating our experience from recent flooding events."