A MAJOR behind-the-scenes row is threatening a plan to unite fire and police facilities on one site in a local town.
Firefighters in Lydney say their bosses want to give them the elbow from the station's lecture room to make way for a sell-off of the town's police station.
The Review understands the Fire and Rescue Service wants to hive off the facility to make a rest room for the police. But the move is being stubbornly resisted by the firefighters who say the loss of the room would be a severe handicap.
Lydney fire chief Chris Martin refused to discuss the situation this week but he did confirm a disagreement.
"It is fair to say we are not happy with the proposals as they stand. Discussions are taking place and until they are completed I'm afraid I cannot make any further comment," he said.
But the Review has been told the room at the centre of the row is the only one available to the firefighters to use for debriefing. It is also used as a classroom and to give talks to visiting groups of school children.
"In the last four months the Lydney firefighters have been called to four incidents involving the loss of five lives. They often need somewhere they can sit and talk over what has happened. If they lose this room they will have to sit in their engines or meet in the car park," said a caller.
In a statement the Fire and Rescue Service has said Lydney had been identified as "offering potential for improved operational and financial benefits to both the Fire and Police Service."
The statement said the initiative was designed to "identify and build on the best value options" for the emergency services.
But the caller to the Review said plans for the "new" Lydney police station were for no more than a front office and a couple of rooms "hardly big enough to swing a cat round" and squeezed between the fire station and the railway line.
Fire and Rescue Service Divisional Officer Geoff Sallis said the Lydney proposals arose from the "triservice project" involving his service, the police and the ambulance service.
The main undertaking was a new joint control centre to provide improved operational response to any emergency within the county. Running alongside the major project the services were also examining other areas in which joint working could offer better value, and Fairford and Lydney had been identified as towns offering the potential for improved operational and financial benefits to both the police and fire services.
DO Sallis said the Lydney project was still very much in the discussion stage and nothing had been decided.
He accepted there would always be some reluctance to change but under new guidelines the service had to seek "best value."
"If we can provide the same or a better service to the public at less cost then I'm afraid we've got no choice," he said.