Emergency services announce £7.5 million collaborative programme

The plans, which have today been approved by Lincolnshire County Council’s community and public safety scrutiny committee, will see the emergency services in Lincolnshire work closer together in a bid to ‘improve frontline services and strengthen partnerships’.

The programme includes centralising Police and Fire to a ‘co-located command and control centre’, in Nettleham and having a ‘blue light tri-service campus’ for police, fire and ambulance, at South park, in Lincoln.

This will be in addition to wider sharing of locations across the county and reviewing how services could work more closely together.

The partners include Lincolnshire Police, Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue, East Midlands Ambulance Service, the Police and Crime Commissioner and Lincolnshire County Council.

The money is part of aninvestment from the Government’s Police Innovation Fund and match funding from local services.

It is expected the programme will be delivered by summer 2018.

Neil Rhodes, Chief Constable at Lincolnshire Police, said: “This is an innovative and exciting concept, but it is complex and should all or any part of it be considered workable, it would take a considerable time to fully implement. Of course, as discussions progress, staff associations will be consulted and public announcements will be made.