WILTSHIRE'S chief fire officer, Neil Wright, has called for talks with leaders of the Fire Brigades' Union after a members' ballot backed further strike action.

The FBU said the ballot result was in favour of strike action to halt the move to the new Emergency Services Communications Centre in London Road, Devizes.

Twelve days ago, the Fire Authority unanimously rejected a call by the General Secretary of the National FBU, Andy Gilchrist, to suspend a move to the new centre on land at Wiltshire Police headquarters.

Now members of the union have made it clear that despite the result of the ballot, they are not intending to strike at the moment to stop the proposed move.

Instead they will wait for assurances from Mr Wright before deciding on whether or not to take action.

Mr Wright says the result of the ballot in full showed only 100 members of the brigade voting in favour of strikes, with 127 abstaining and 73 voting against.

"To my mind this is clearly no mandate for strikes," he said.

"With only 15.5 per cent of the brigade strength of 637 voting for strike action, it is obvious that the majority of brigade members are very much in favour of improving the service we deliver."

He continued: "I have already given assurances that the new centre will not cause job losses or a change in negotiated conditions of service.

"But I cannot offer any further concessions on the current position adopted by the brigade in respect of the new centre."

The FBU, however, disputes Mr Wright's figures.

It says the results of the ballot showed that 57.8 per cent of FBU members who voted were in favour of strike action to stop the move to the joint centre.

Joe Tray, secretary of Wiltshire FBU, said: "We are not going to take strike action at the moment.

"We are giving the chief fire officer an opportunity to discuss it and give us reassurances.

However, strike action could be seven days away if the FBU fails to get the assurances it is seeking."

The FBU is concerned that moving fire controllers, ambulance and police call handlers to the joint centre could result in job losses in the future.

It is also concerned about the computer equipment proposed for the new centre.

Fire controllers fear it will not be as good as the Command and Control computer software that they use now.

Despite not having an overwhelming majority of members in favour of strike action, Mr Tray said the FBU was heartened by the result of the ballot.

"It's not a huge majority but it's a positive message from the members that they support the fire controllers.

"Governments have been elected on less majorities than we had in our ballot so we find the result of the ballot reassuring," he said.

The £7 million joint control centre in London Road, Devizes, will be the first of its kind to be built in the country and it is due to open in May.

The county's fire brigade, police and ambulance services have been working on the groundbreaking project, which has been given Home Office funding, for five years.

jcrooks@newswilts.co.uk