FIVE Rivers is set to become the new focal point for the combined Dorset & Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Authority after a decision to make the community campus its strategic hub.

When the merger between Wiltshire and Dorset was announced in November last year, Salisbury was named as the preferred location for the hub. The new combined fire service will look to axe their 'traditional HQs' in Devizes and Dorchester in order to save money.

It means some operational staff will be moved to the city but the new hub will mainly be used for training and meetings.

Five Rivers was originally going to house the police response teams but they will remain in Amesbury and while the final agreement with the fire service is yet to be made the campus is the preferred location.

Wiltshire Fire Authority chairman Christopher Devine pledged that no fire stations would close and no front line fire fighters would be made redundant under the cost cutting proposals.

He said: "We will be looking at the whole estate and finding ways to save money. This is what the merger was all about."

But he added around a third of the operations officers who are involved in planning and strategy would be made redundant as the service looks to make savings on middle management.

At the moment the two services have around 60 operations officers and this number would be cut by about 20.

The Fire Brigade Union has been consulted on changes and redundancies but talks on which jobs will be slashed is to start in the autumn.

A spokesman for the shadow authority said: "We are in the process of determining which members of staff might be permanently relocated to Salisbury from other parts of Wiltshire and Dorset.

"This is being done as part of developing the new organisational structure, and decisions have yet to be made.

"Alongside the work to progress the new Salisbury site, both Wiltshire and Dorset FRSs are carrying out detailed reviews of their whole combined estate."

The new hub in Salisbury will provide a central workplace for service's management team and some support functions. It will also house a number of ‘hot desks’ for personnel from across the new service, as part of a wider new approach to working across Wiltshire and Dorset and a meeting place for teams/departments and the new fire authority.

Darran Gunter, the existing Dorset chief fire officer, will lead the new combined service from April 1. Wiltshire chief Simon Routh-Jones is expected to stay in post until the merger is complete but he faces redundancy.

The post of deputy chief fire officer will disappear but Mr Gunter will be supported by four assistant chiefs.

A decision on the future of the current historic HQ in Potterne, near Devizes, is yet to be made but the new control centre at the site will remain.