CHESHIRE Fire and Rescue Service has made a U-turn on plans to sell and move out of its Winsford headquarters.

Last year, the fire service announced plans to sell its headquarters in Sadler Road, and move to the Cheshire Police headquarters in Clemonds Hey, also in Winsford.

The idea to move both emergency services under the same roof was named the ‘Blue Light Collaboration (BLC) Programme.

A report by the Cheshire Fire Authority has now revealed that a bid for funding from the Police Innovation Fund, to help fund the move, has been unsuccessful.

According to the report, Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service will still move some parts to the Police HQ, but the designated fire areas of the site would be ‘very small’.

The report states: “This has a significant impact on the BLC Programme. Funding from the Police Innovation Fund has not been forthcoming and not all of the benefits outlined in the business case will be achieved.

“One of the main assets to be ‘shared’ was the Clemonds Hey site (Cheshire Police HQ). However, the retention of Sadler Road means that the proposed ‘equity share’ offered by the previous Police and Crime Commissioner no longer appears to be necessary or justified.

“CFRS will retain its asset and will simply have a sub-lease of any fire specific parts of the Clemonds Hey site, which will in fact be a very small area.”

Training facilities as well as ‘other operational departments and staff’ will remain at the current Sadler Road site, and this is estimated to save £1.1million for the BLC Programme.

Other parts of the BLC Programme will continue to be pursued. These include the creation of a joint vehicle workshop and the creation of joint back office departments.

The programme will also still see the fire service joining the Multi-Force Shared Service, which is a collaboration between Cheshire, Northamptonshire and Nottinghamshire police forces.

The whole collaboration progamme is now estimated to cost £5.5million instead of the £6.6million predicted in December.

Mark Cashin, Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service’s Deputy Chief Fire Officer, said: “The Blue Light Collaboration programme, which was approved by Cheshire Fire Authority and the Cheshire Police and Crime Commissioner in 2015, is ongoing and will still involve a move to a single joint headquarters and the merging of a number of support functions from both organisations.

“Originally, the plan was to also to move all operational training from fire’s current headquarters to the new joint facility. However, following an in-depth review and costing exercise, the Fire Authority has agreed that training should continue to be delivered from its current location.

“Also in a bid to ensure that our crews get the very best training possible to keep them and our communities safe, they also agreed that the current facilities could be significantly refurbished."