THE first stone of Wiltshire's groundbreaking emergency control room was laid this week but a simmering dispute could be laying the foundations of a major embarrassment for the county.

The county's pioneering control room project, based at the police headquarters in Devizes, will link operators from police, fire and ambulance for the first time.

The scheme is being monitored by the Home Office as part of a pilot and when it opens the whole country will be watching Wiltshire to see how it performs.

But an on-going dispute with the Fire Brigades' Union is threatening to leave the county looking rather foolish. After months of planning and consultation, the union has still not agreed to man the new control room.

The union says it is not happy that its operators will have to abandon a purpose-built system that allows them to give support and specific advice to callers in peril.

They claim the new system will not allow them to do that.

The three services' project team claims it is still in negotiation with the union and all will be well by the time the centre is due to open next September .

We sincerely hope the project team is not being complacent and that it recognises the genuine concerns of skilled and experienced operators who claim similar projects abroad have met with problems.

The success of the joint control room will be a prestigious feather in the county's cap and it should not be placed under threat by a lack of willingness to talk.

We urge both sides to resolve this issue, and quickly.