Right resources being sent, says Scotland's fire chief

Scotland's chief fire officer Alasdair Hay has said the right resources are being sent to incidents after claims about the handling of some call-outs.

He was responding to concerns local knowledge has been lost following the closure of fire control rooms in Inverness and Aberdeen.

Highland Council and Shetland MSP Tavish Scott have been among those raising the concerns.

Mr Hay said there were "checks and balances" to ensure the right response.

Earlier this week, Highland Council's ruling administration renewed its call for the region to have a dedicated fire control room service.

The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) shut its operations control room in Inverness last month and its site in Aberdeen in November.

Calls that were handled by those control rooms are now dealt with in Dundee.

But Mr Hay said: "I want to give strong reassurances that at no point did we not dispatch the right resources across the north of Scotland.

"We have a number of checks and balances that make sure we send the right resources to the right incident as quickly as we can."

He said the fire service would also continue to improve systems, processes and operations to provide "the best possible and most robust service" to communities.