FIRE Minister Penny Mordaunt has earmarked a total of £5.54million for Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service to help pay for a proposed merger with Dorset’s fire service.

The funding is part of the Fire Transformation Fund which is awarding £75million to improve frontline services and make £300million of savings in the long run.

Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service plans to use the money to help make the proposed merger with Dorset a smooth process, to focus on prevention of incidents through education by creating a multi-agency hub and to help improve the service’s IT system.

The bid was made by Wiltshire FRS on behalf of itself and Dorset FRS and is one of 37 projects nationally to win financial support.

Announcing the winning bids, Fire Minster Penny Mordaunt said: “Fire services have done an amazing job over the last few years in reducing demand on their emergency services; there are fewer fires and deaths.

“But this means the service needs to adapt – to meet new demands and to ensure it is working in the most efficient way. That’s why we’ve set up the Fire Transformation Fund.

“One of the things that I found encouraging was the high number of bids looking to promote greater collaboration with other emergency services through sharing stations and services, sharing of back office functions, and joining up on service delivery.”

Wiltshire and Swindon Combined Fire Authority will meet on November 11 to decide whether or not to seek a merger with Dorset.

A 13 week consultation on three options for ways that Wiltshire Fire & Rescue Service could operate closes this week, and responses from the public, staff, partners and other interested parties are now being collated.

As well as an on-line questionnaire, the consultation included residents’ forums, meetings with local businesses and voluntary groups, and presentations at Area Boards.

Residents were asked if they would prefer an independent fire service with increased collaboration with Wiltshire and Swindon’s councils, an independent service that worked more closely with both councils and Dorset Fire Authority or a merger between the two authorities to create a single fire service for the two counties.

A parallel consultation was carried out in Dorset, and the Fire Authority there is meeting on 4 November to decide whether to seek a merger with Wiltshire.

The business cases for combination, the consultation report and other supporting documents will be available on-line at www.wiltsfire.gov.uk and www.dorsetfire.gov.uk from October28, ahead of these two public meetings.