WILTSHIRE Fire Authority is likely to hear early in the New Year whether it will host the new regional fire control centre, covering seven brigade areas from Gloucestershire to Cornwall.

But there is now no doubt that the Fire Brigade will have to pull out of the joint services control room based at Wiltshire police headquarters in Devizes, despite lavish Government praise of the project and £2.6million investment via the National Health Service.

The issue of regionalisation of fire services is the brainchild of Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott and the country's 40-odd fire authorities had been warned to set up robust regional management boards or have them set up for them.

The South West region comprises seven authorities, who have been used to co-operating in many aspects over the years, so the setting up of the regional management board was not an onerous task.

Jerry Willmott, from Potterne, near Devizes, the chairman of the Wiltshire and Swindon Fire Authority, was elected chairman of the RMB and much of his work lately has been trying to assess what is demanded of the regional board.

He said: "We were given no hard-and-fast rules. We had to establish a constitution and submit it. I assume what we proposed was robust because it has been accepted."

The regional boards have been told to amalgamate in several key areas, notably procurement of equipment and services, training, control rooms, common or shared services and human resources.

Particular stress has been laid on amalgamating control rooms and si of the seven South West brigades have put in their own bids for the regional control room. Wiltshire, after a desperate search, managed to find a site for its bid.

But the brigade is not revealing the location of its bid as the information is commercially sensitive.

The changes are not likely to happen until 2007 at the earliest.

Wiltshire's chief fire officer, Andy Goves, said: "At the last count there were 169 commercial bids to build the nine regional centres."

It is only a few months since the joint emergency services control centre opened on land at police headquarters in Devizes.

It had taken many months of negotiating to convince members of the Fire Brigades' Union to join their colleagues from the police and ambulance services in the first-floor control room.

Mr Willmott and Mr Goves are being diplomatic about the situation with which they have been presented. At a confidential meeting with Local Government Minister Nick Raynsford in March, they asked him what were the chances of the Wiltshire joint control room being considered as a special case.

Mr Willmott said: "We spent over an hour and a half with him. He gave us ample opportunity to put our case to him. He was in genuine listening mode, but he told us it was not their intention to accept any exemptions.

"He was very concerned at the effects of what was planned on the control room staff. But it has left our staff in limbo, with the livelihoods of them and their families threatened."

Mr Willmott and Mr Goves are keen to stress that they did not use this meeting to try to push their case to the disadvantage of their partners in the South West Regional Management Board.

The push towards regionalisation is creating a lot of work for everyone, not only at the fire brigades' Potterne HQ but at all the fire services throughout the country.

Not only that, but the reorganisation is slashing away at long-established routines and structures that reflect the service's military background.

The rank to role movement, whereby people from non-fire brigade backgrounds can apply for positions well up the promotion ladder, is now well in place.

For Mr Willmott and Mr Goves, who have both performed in every rank from the bottom to the top of the fire brigade career ladder, say they will continue to defend the integrity and continued existence of Wiltshire and Swindon Fire Brigade.