Up to 40 jobs could be lost in the county as part of a major government shake-up of emergency fire call services, according to the Fire Brigades Union (FBU).

Ministers are proposing to close 46 fire control rooms – including Kent's – in favour of creating nine regional call centres.

The control room at Kent and Medway Fire and Rescue Service, based at its Maidstone headquarters, would move to a new south east hub in Fareham, Hampshire.

But Jim Parrott, the south east spokesman for the FBU, warned jobs in Kent could be for the chop if the changes take place in 2011.

He said: "Forty jobs could be lost in Kent. It affects the whole control centre because it's unlikely that people will apply or reapply for positions where they will have to travel long distances."

Kent and Medway Fire and Rescue Authority said it was unable to comment on the how the move would impact staff levels.

But a spokesman said: "Kent Fire and Rescue Service values these key members of staff and, as well as keeping them fully informed, is providing a wealth of support throughout this process."

The FBU is calling for an urgent investigation into the rising costs of the IT project, called FireControl, which it claims have soared from £100million to £868million.

But fire minister Parmjit Dhanda, who denies the spiralling costs, said: "This is basic FBU scaremongering by misrepresenting the facts. Contrary to the claims made the total cost of the project is £360million.

"The FBU have completely ignored the significant savings that will be made from running nine networked centres instead of the current 46 outdated control rooms.

"Our firefighters and the public deserve the very best - which is why we are providing the most advanced technical support to any fire service in the world."

But Mr Parrott has no confidence in the new technology being a success.

"There's a high risk of it failing like all the other IT projects that the Government has been behind," he added. "If it fails that is 4,000 people in fires and11,500 in road traffic accidents being put at risk. This is our main concern."

The project should have been in place three years ago. Now it looks set to be in force by 2011.

Bill Feeley, Kent and Medway Fire and Rescue authority's chief fire officer, said: "The authority has previously expressed its concerns about the scale of the project, projected costs and the slippage in the implementation programme.

"We are obviously concerned at the impact on a high-performing group of staff and we are also keen to see that it is flexible enough to cater for local issues as well as regional ones."

Factfile

The Government says every area in the country will benefit from capabilities the current control rooms do not have - including in cab floor plans, water supply and hazard information, and automatic location of the nearest appliance.

The FBU (source Local Government and Communities) has argued the running costs of the nine centres will be £68.7million compared to the current running cost of 46 centres at £65.1million.