WORK has begun on the construction of a multi-million pound fire control centre for the North-East.

Project chiefs said preparatory work is under way at the site on the Belmont Business Park, near Durham. A ground-breaking ceremony will take place next month.

It will open in about two years and will handle emergency 999 calls from across the region, replacing existing control rooms in Cleveland, Durham and Northumbria.

The centre will be one of the first to use new radio technology.

Current radio provision differs from brigade to brigade and only allows control rooms to communicate with fire engines within a particular county.

The new system will mean the control room can communicate with any fire crew, no matter where they are in the country.

It will also allow one control centre to handle calls made to another at times of extreme strain on the system, such as a natural disaster or terrorist attack.

A preferred bidder, O2 Airwave, which operates North-East police radio, has been chosen by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister.

The director of support services at Cleveland Fire and Rescue, John Burke, is in charge of the project to build the North-East fire control centre.

He said: "It will help provide cover at very busy times with the system automatically passing the controls on to another control centre linked into the network."

He cited the recent fire at the Buncefield oil depot as an example of where the new system could be of use.

However, the system has been criticised by the Fire Brigades Union, which claims much of the technology is untested.