Planning permission has been given for a South-East fire control centre which unions warn could bring job cuts in Sussex.

The £110 million building in Fareham, Hampshire, given approval by local planners this week, could signal the closure of fire brigade control rooms in Chichester, Eastbourne and others round the region.

The Government wants to set up regional centres around the country, arguing centralised services are more efficient at co-ordinating efforts during large-scale emergencies and big fires.

It also claims it is cheaper to run a centralised service.

Although planning permission has been approved, critics are still hoping for a Government U-turn.

Regionalisation of control centres was the subject of a Government Select Committee inquiry which ended early this month.

The committee completed its investigation and is expected to present its findings to the Government in the next few months.

Regionalisation is being strongly resisted by the Fire Brigade Union (FBU), which claims the move would prove a waste of money.

Jim Parrott, the FBU's Brighton-based regional secretary, said: "The FBU doesn't see the need for regional control centres and has put forward an alternative plan, simply to improve the capabilities of existing control rooms to handle major disasters."

Mr Parrott said it would save the huge expense of planning and building regional centres and avoid the possible loss of staff - at East Sussex Fire Service's control room in Eastbourne and the West Sussex service's control room in Chichester.

Mr Parrott said the Buncefield oil terminal fire in Hemel Hempstead in December showed how local control rooms can manage.

He said: "It coped extremely well.

"Surrounding control rooms took up the additional capacity and they all linked together.

"We simply don't see the need for a new system."

Mr Parrott said the FBU had two further concerns: "Every new major Government computer project introduced in recent years has failed, and we could see a loss of staff in existing control centres."

The East Sussex control room in Eastbourne, he said, was new and built after flooding destroyed the old control centre in Lewes in 2000.

He said: "It has sufficient capacity to deal with a major incident anywhere in the South-East all by itself.

"We can't see why the Government wants to set up a new system that is not needed.

"Taxpayers in Sussex have already paid out for the Eastbourne centre and we don't see why they should be expected to contribute to another one.

"There is no benefit."