EMERGENCY calls to Kent’s fire service could end up being handled by a new regional centre miles from the county.

Kent firefighters say the shake-up could put lives at risk and have labelled the Government plans nonsensical.

Mark Simmons, of the Kent Fire Brigade Union and a regional officer for the South East, said: “These regional control centres will be the same as call centres.

“You will end up with people being put on hold and listening to Vivaldi’s Four Seasons while their house is burning down. It is a nonsense.”

The Government wants to replace the existing 46 control rooms in England with nine regional centres.

In the South East, the Kent control room at the fire service’s headquarters in Tovil, Maidstone, could be replaced by a regional centre in either Surrey or Oxfordshire. That would deal with all calls from a region including the Isle of Wight, Sussex and Hampshire.

A leaked report into the proposals has suggested the plan could push up council tax bills, lead to cuts in the fire service and cost jobs.

Mr Simmons believes regional control centres would mean calls being handled by people with no local knowledge.

He said: “You could end up with an emergency call about the Channel Tunnel being dealt with by a centre in Scotland or Wales.

“These regional centres will inevitably reach a saturation point at certain times and calls will have to be diverted. The plans are fraught with problems.”

The FBU says the leaked report reveals the costs of the re-organisation will be £754m, with savings of £42.3m over ten years – about £90,000 for each fire authority.

Ministers have insisted the changes are needed. Fire service minister Nick Raynsford said: “Existing control rooms do a good job but they are not designed to deal in a co-ordinated fashion with major regional or national incidents.”

A meeting of fire chiefs from the South East, along with the chairmen of the region’s fire authorities, is due to take place at the end of the month to discuss the plans.

The Kent and Medway Fire Authority has not yet taken a view about the plans.