A number of reports influenced the Governments decision to combine the 46 control rooms into 9 regional control centres these included:- * Sir George Bain, The Future of the Fire Service: reducing risk, saving lives - The Independent Review of the Fire Service December 2002 * Government white paper: Our Fire and Rescue Service * Mott Macdonald: The Future of Fire and Rescue Service Control Rooms in England and Wales The FiReControl project was formally initiated in March 2004.