THE fire brigade is getting a new call-handling centre after being awarded £1.8 million in funding.

Hereford and Worcester Fire & Rescue Service will see their call-takers move out of Worcester Fire Station in Copenhagen Street to a new centre at the brigade’s headquartes in Charles Hastings Way by the hospital.

It comes after the brigade successfully tabled a joint bid for £3.6 million with the Shropshire fire service. The brigades are splitting the money equally.

The new call centres will take emergency 999 calls for both brigades during busy periods.

The calls have been taken at Copenhagen Street for the last 50 years, but the equipment is in need of a major overall and rather than refit the old centre, fire service bosses decided to ask for enough money to get a stateof- the-art facility.

The call centre will be established next to the brigade’s existing command suite where top fire officers coordinate major exercises and emergencies, aiding communication.

Chief Fire Officer Mark Yates said: “I am delighted.

“Our new control room will provide us with a locallybased fire control facility with improved technology.

“We believe this state-ofthe- art control room will improve the efficiency of our call handling function and improve our emergency response.”