ANOTHER spark has ignited the wrath of firefighters with the revelation that county control centres will be phased out by 2007.

The Government has decided to replace county 999 control rooms with a national network of nine regional centres across Britain.

Kent calls will be taken in the same South East centre as calls from Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Oxfordshire, Surrey and Sussex. It has not been established where that centre will be but it will not be in Kent.

Staff at the Kent control room at Maidstone are outraged at the decision, which they say will create robotic responses to distressing cries for help.

And Mick Dibley, of Harbledown, the east divisional chairman of Kent's Fire Brigade Union, believes this could be the start of the centralisation of all calls to the emergency services.

"I think it paves the way for having fire, police and ambulance altogether. That's the Government's long-term objective," he said. "The main problem with that is the call responses will become more and more robotic."

Maria Boorman, from Sittingbourne, has worked in the Kent Fire & Rescue Service control room for six years. She said: "We at control feel very passionate about our jobs and very proud of what we do, yet the Government just want to turn us into a call centre.

"The staff that work within control all live within Kent and therefore have lots of local knowledge of the area and this helps when people calling 999 aren't sure where they are or what motorway they're on.

"When people call 999 about a fire, rest assured they won't be speaking to a local person who can help them with their location as we do on a daily basis. They may as well be calling India."

Her concerns will be shared by those who have experienced difficulties with police 999 calls after they moved from local bases to a countywide control centre two-and-a-half years ago.

But a spokesman for the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister said the comparison was unfair. He said: "Local knowledge plays no part in responding to 999 fire calls and hasn't done for 20 years.

"Nowadays, the technology is such that we can locate a fire just from the call. The reason for the change is all about modernising the fire and rescue service, about being more resilient in responding and dealing with emergencies.

"While people may think the merging of control rooms is a cost-cutting exercise and jobs will be lost, in reality it will actually create roles.

"At present, if you work in a control room then that is the only job you have been trained to do. We aim to create fuller roles so staff have a wider skills base."

Meanwhile, the dispute between the firefighters and their employers could yet bring about fresh industrial action.

The FBU is this week balloting staff on whether to vote for strike action over the issue of "stand down" time during Bank Holidays. The ballot papers must be returned by August 31 and, if positive, the earliest possible date for industrial action is September 7.