Fire service control rooms in Aberdeen and Inverness will shut next year, it has emerged.
Officials from the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) confirmed their plans to shut the two facilities in early 2017.
Emergency calls will instead be answered from a new call centre in Dundee.
Last night, Scottish Labour’s Lewis Macdonald said the news the closures would go ahead was “very regrettable”.
And he echoed concerns from campaigners about the loss of local knowledge and expertise that could result from the facilities shifting south.
The SFRS said the closures would ensure local fire crews are directed “quickly and effectively to where they are needed”.
Other control rooms – in the Borders, Fife and central belt – have already been shut as the service attempts to cut the number of call centre facilities from eight to three.
Mr Macdonald said: “This four-year closure process reflects how difficult it has been for the fire service.
“Aberdeen is the best control room in the country. It is state of the art and was only built a few years before these closures were announced.
“Instead (the SFRS) has chosen to build an entirely new facility they didn’t have in Dundee.
“It makes no sense at all. Many people whose skills were so important have also left, of course. Some may relocate to Dundee but a great deal of local knowledge and expertise will have been lost.
“It is very regrettable that this is going forward.”
Local campaigners were also left fuming at the decision to close the two control rooms next year, claiming local knowledge was being “bypassed” in a “cost-cutting exercise”.
The merger is expected to save the fire service more than £2million, with around 60 jobs being lost across the country.
But SFRS deputy assistant chief officer Andy Coueslant said the measure was about more than saving money.
He said: “We have committed a multimillion pound investment to ensure communities in the north are served by a state of the art control capability that will direct our local crews quickly and effectively to where they are needed.
“We respond to every emergency 999 call and this will not change.
“It is anticipated that the refurbishment and full testing of the North Control in Dundee will conclude by early 2017, with the migration of both the Inverness and Aberdeen controls expected to be complete by the first quarter of 2017.
“This will ensure the new operations control only comes online when we are fully satisfied that all testing, staff training and system integration has been successfully completed.”
