Ref. 11480-06THE Duchess of Gloucester has given the royal seal of approval to the controversial £7 million Wiltshire Emergency Communications Centre which fire, ambulance and police control staff share.

She officially opened the centre - the first of its kind in the country - in Devizes and was greeted by the Lord Lieutenant of Wiltshire Sir Maurice Johnston.

A posy of flowers was presented to the Duchess by Emily Brake, 13, who is daughter of one of the ambulance controllers.

After her tour of the communications centre, the Duchess unveiled the plaque in a marquee in the grounds of the police headquarters.

The police controllers moved in during July, followed a few weeks later by ambulance controllers. Fire controllers, who are undergoing training, are due to be in place next month.

The centre was the project of John Craig, former chief fire officer for Wiltshire , who had seen joint control rooms in various countries, including Sweden.

He said: "I was convinced this was the way forward for emergency services in this country. There was a lot of scepticism and doubt from all levels of the emergency services but what we have here in Wiltshire is better than anything I saw overseas."

He said he believed a joint control room would have prevented the delay in emergency services being called to the Countess of Wessex when she had her baby.

Police control room supervisor Claire Baines has been a control room operator for nine years with Wiltshire police, previously based at police headquarters in Devizes.

She said: "We have established a good working relationship with ambulance control staff and we look forward to doing the same with fire control staff.

"The equipment helps us, we are able to speak to people and get officers to incidents quickly and efficiently and it's beneficial to the whole of Wiltshire."

The centre cost £7m of which the Home Office contributed £2.6m and is the first of its kind to be built in the country.

Bhavani Vadde