A PLAN to create a single fire control room for the Thames Valley has collapsed after Buckinghamshire fire chiefs backed out.

Last month county councillors backed an idea for Oxfordshire firefighters to draw up plans to create a single control room with Buckinghamshire and Berkshire, covering the same area as Thames Valley Police.

But now Buckinghamshire and Milton Keynes Fire Authority has instead voted to move its control room to Cambridgeshire, because it was cheaper than the Thames Valley project.

Chairman of the authority David Rowlands said: “We opted for what we felt would deliver the best result at lower cost to our taxpayers.”

That has left Berkshire and Oxfordshire pursuing the project alone.

Oxfordshire County Council’s deputy chief fire officer, Colin Thomas, said he was “disappointed” with Buckinghamshire councillors’ decision.

He said: “I am disappointed that they have made this choice as I believe it was an effective solution to meeting our collective needs.

“Oxfordshire politicians had already directed the service to prepare contingency plans should this happen.

“Working with Royal Berkshire, which endorsed the earlier plan, we will now pursue the contingency arrangements that continue to secure high quality and resilient services.”

He added: “As yet the final arrangements are not yet decided.”

Royal Berkshire Fire Authority said it was still “very keen” to work with Oxfordshire.

Chairman Colin Dudley said: “Our preferred option is still a Thames Valley control centre.”

No decision has yet been taken as to where a merged control room would be based, and options in both counties are being examined.

The project was launched after the collapse of the last Government’s FiReControl project, to replace 46 fire control rooms with nine regional hubs.

The six-year venture, led by ex- deputy PM John Prescott, wasted £469m of taxpayers’ money, before collapsing last year without delivering any of its objectives.

Eight of the nine vast new buildings remain empty, but will cost mi llions of pounds each year for up to 24 years.

Meanwhile, fire authorities have been left finding ways to upgrade and modernise their control rooms.

Fire Brigades Union (FBU) organiser Rachel Dobson, a control room worker in Kidlington, said: “The FBU warned that the lessons of the FiReControl project have not been learned.

“The future of Oxfordshire’s control room is once again hanging in the balance.”

She said the FBU would opposed any plans leading to the closure of the Kidlington control room, and instead backed using technology to integrate county control rooms without merging them.