Two fire services will share a control room to save money

The fire service said the number of emergency calls it received had fallen dramatically

Two fire services are set to merge their control rooms for two years in an effort to save money.

Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire will begin handling 999 calls from a new shared centre in Derby later this year.

It is hoped the project, which will cost £430,000 to set up, will save each service £350,000 annually.

The move comes after Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service confirmed it would move into a remodelled police headquarters from 2021.

The new Derby control centre would be based at Ascot Drive fire station, where a new £9.5m police station is planned.

The control room is part of a wider development of the Ascot Road site

Managers said emergency calls had "fallen dramatically" and both services now had the same number of calls Nottinghamshire alone received in 2005.

Derbyshire's chief fire officer, Terry McDermott, said: "The safety of our communities is at the core of our business.

"People should be assured that bringing together the control room operators from Nottingham and Derbyshire will not affect the way 999 emergency calls are handled, or the level of service people will receive when needing the fire service in an emergency."

Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service will move into the police headquarters as part of a £18.5m refurbishment

Both services said they did not believe there would be any compulsory redundancies.

According to a report seen by the Local Democracy Reporting Service, Leicestershire will not be involved with the new control room, but will provide back-up should it experience problems.

The move comes against a background of tightening budgets.

Both fire services used money from reserves to balance the budget for 2019-2020. Derbyshire used £800,000 and Nottinghamshire £1.24m.

Last week Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service confirmed it would be sharing the Sherwood Lodge police headquarters as part of a £18.5m refurbishment.

The current fire service headquarters at Bestwood Lodge will be sold.