Fears over a possible terrorist attack could prove key to the location of a new super fire control centre for the North-East, The Northern Echo has learnt.

The new three storey HQ which will replace control rooms serving the region's four fire brigades is likely to be drawn from one of three as yet unrevealed locations.

A procurement and tendering process is currently taking place involving a shortlist of developers who are bidding to build the regional control centre.

Strict guidance has been issued over any possible location for the new control centre which will be expected to take into account *Its vulnerability to an attack on local power supplies

*Access by air

*Proximity to possible risks such as chemical hazards

Developers will be expected to help meet the multi-million pound cost of building the centre, which will be rented back to fire and rescue services, while additional funding will come from the Government.

Last night John Burke, director of support services at Cleveland Fire Brigade, and regional project director for the North-East, said the reason why the new control centre was not being housed in existing premises was because they did not meet "additional functionality and security requirements".

He confirmed that some existing fire control rooms in the region could be disposed of but that would be at the discretion of individual fire authorities.

Mr Burke said: "The overriding aim of this project is to provide a nationally resilient infrastructure for the fire and rescue services.

"Part of that is to facilitate efficient management of the resources we have available in times of national stress."

He also said he could not comment on how many staff would be required to man the new HQ, nor if job losses would result at existing centres. Mr Burke, who also dismissed suggestions that the control centre could lead to fire and ambulance calls being handled under the same roof, said: "There will be economies of scale, but the actual numbers are not known yet.

"What we can say is that this is not just a building and technology project - it is very much a people project and they are a key component of it." The North-East is in the first wave of regional control centres and a new HQ is due to be operational by November 2006.

The final decision as to the centre's location will be taken by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) following input from a regional management board representing the North-East's four fire and rescue authorities and could be made public as early as next month.

A spokeswoman for the ODPM said: "Everything is subject to commercial confidentiality at this stage and no decisions have been taken."