FIRE chiefs have refused to back a plan to merge Yorkshire's fire control rooms.
Their move came as the Fire Brigades' Union said it feared cuts to jobs and increases in council tax to pay for the project.
Government ministers have outlined a plan to create nine regional fire control centres across the country to deal with emergencies.
The plan is likely to lead to the closure of the control room at West Yorkshire brigade's Birken- shaw headquarters.
Fire service officials representing Yorkshire and Humberside said after a meeting that they accepted modernisation in principle.
But they said they had not been given enough details to make a decision on the scheme.
The Fire Brigades' Union said the Government plans could cost more than £1bn and threaten lives.
General secretary Andy Gilchrist said: "We have genuine fears this project will see lives lost, cuts to frontline services, technology which does not work and a massive overspend.
"To subject a 999 instant response rescue service to these sorts of risks is wholly unacceptable."
