Fire chiefs and firefighters have joined forces to attack government plans to create a single control room for all brigades in the North East.

The Chief and Assistant Chief Fire Officers Association (CACFOA) warned the move "would not make a significant contribution" to tackling major emergencies.

It threw doubt on the timetable for regional control rooms to be "live" next year and warned the cost of the shake-up could fall on cash-strapped fire authorities.

The Fire Brigades Union went even further - claiming the changes would be dangerous and could cost the lives of either members of the public or firefighters.

A single control room would be an attractive terrorist target and response times would worsen, because of the loss of vital local knowledge, the FBU said.

Deputy prime minister John Prescott insists all-powerful control rooms must be set up because individual brigades cannot cope with major disasters or terrorist atrocities.

In the North East, it would merge the operations of Durham, Cleveland, Northumbria and Tyne and Wear. Its location has not been decided.

A single control room in Yorkshire would direct the separate services in North Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire and Humberside.

The fierce criticisms are revealed in responses to a consultation launched by the office of the deputy prime minister, published yesterday.

CACFOA told the consultation: "There is great concern over the timetable and the ability to deliver to the timetable. Some regional controls will need to be live in 2005."

And the FBU said: "Loss of local knowledge particularly when dealing with calls from mobile phones would hamper the ability to deal with calls and locate incidents.

"One can only feel that it is change for change's sake, with no benefit for the public or the service. In fact a dangerous move, which could result in deaths for the public and firefighters."

The government has insisted new technology to enable control rooms to pinpoint the location of callers and vehicles makes the importance of local knowledge a "myth".

Fire services had enjoyed a 28 per cent rise in funding since 1997, including an average increase of 4.2 per cent this year and extra cash to cope with the transition, it said.

In a statement to MPs, Nick Raynsford, the fire minister, said: "The responses broadly endorsed the proposed approach of regional control rooms on the basis of one per region."

The creation of regional control rooms is separate to the proposal to merge fire authorities themselves to create a "super-brigade" across the North East and Yorkshire.

Mr Prescott has said he expects that to happen if voters back the setting up of elected regional assemblies in October's referendums.