TORY candidate Myles Hogg has pledged to save the Cheshire Fire Service control room.
He says Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott plans to scrap each county's separate control room and restructure all fire authorities.
Cllr Hogg said: 'Despite the rejection of regional government in November's North East regional referendum, Mr Prescott is moving ahead with these expensive plans.
'It means the local fire control room will be shut down.
'Decisions on staffing and local fire stations now face being made or influenced at a regional level, allowing unaccountable bureaucrats to shut down fire stations.'
He added: 'A regional structure will put lives at risk, since 999 operators will have less knowledge of the Ellesmere Port and Neston area.
'The North West region contains 6,771,000 people and covers an mammoth area of 14,106sq km.
'Civil resilience could also be damaged by placing all the eggs in one basket.
'If the regional centre is forced offline by a disaster or attack, the whole emergency response will go down.'
He said only the Tories have pledged to halt this scheme and want to ensure fire and rescue authorities remain accountable to local people, rather than an 'unwanted' regional quango.
