Dorset fire control room staff to move to Poundbury

Control room staff at Dorset Fire and Rescue Service are set to move to the force's headquarters in a bid to save money.

Currently up to 25 workers deal with emergency calls at the council-owned County Hall in Dorchester.

They will join fire service colleagues at the headquarters on the nearby Poundbury site, saving the service about £39,000 a year in rent and rates.

Dorset Fire Authority also backed plans to keep the fire control in the town.

This followed the scrapping of the government's multi-million pound scheme to replace 46 fire control centres in England with nine regional sites.

This would have led to a single South West centre covering Dorset, Devon and Somerset, Avon, Cornwall, Wiltshire and Gloucestershire.