The Wilberforce Fire Control Centre was "inadequate" to meet the needs of the 21st Century, and it is time the Hawkesbury was provided with a state-of-the-art facility for emergency services, according to Mayor Barry Calvert.
In a mayoral minute to the December 10 council meeting, Cr Calvert moved that formal discussions be initiated with the NSW Government to establish a purpose-built facility to service various agencies that could easily be scaled up at times of emergency.
"Every time I go there the place looks more run down and more inadequate for what we want to do," he told the meeting. "During times of crisis what you find is that they have to bring portable buildings in because there's not enough room in the main centre.
"It's not 21st Century, it's really 19th Century kind of activity going on there.
"The volunteers and the staff who are running the ... fire control centre have things bad enough already. They've got so much to do, and to give them the extra burden of a facility which makes things more difficult for them I think is just ridiculous in this day and age.
"I am putting this forward because I think it's about time we bit the bullet and try to find a new fire control centre."
Also included in the minute was to support relocating Wilberforce Rural Fire Service within the next 12 months, a move welcomed by the brigade's Senior Deputy Captain and president, Michael Scholz, who has been pushing for a new station for more than 15 years.
The station is currently located behind the fire control centre and its facilities were also inadequate, he said.
"We're currently in a very serious bushfire emergency. Our brigade's been working around the clock, and the facilities we currently have are completely inadequate," Mr Scholz told the meeting.
"We have no toilet, we have no hot water, we have no air conditioning ... we don't have any suitable storage areas - in fact they're quite dangerous - and we have no way of cleaning our breathing apparatus. We have to clean it on the floor in the dust.
"We currently have also had a number of near-misses where children have nearly been run over by the fire truck, because Wilberforce Public School [is] right next door, and due to an emergency response sometimes those children run towards the fire truck.
"This is affecting recruitment and it's also demoralising our brigade members to the point where we're struggling now to get a sufficient response to emergency incidents.
"We are not just a bushfire brigade. We respond to motor vehicle accidents, structural fires, gas and chemical leaks, spills, you name it.
"Whatever you want to call it, but with a drying climate we are going to see more frequent and intense bushfires. We must act on this issue now and not wait another five years.
"If you are considering doing something with the fire control centre, you must help us at Wilberforce build a new fire station.
"It's important for the future that we build resilience in our community for emergencies, because there's probably going to be a lot more of them."
Cr Calvert said he had spoken to Hawkesbury MP Robyn Preston about the matter, and she was very interested in the issue.
"She would like us to look at having a centre which maybe used in a flexible way, so it may house other emergency services," he said. "There's a whole lot of discussion that needs to yet take place and what I am trying to do is get this out there, get it on the table, get the discussions going, lobby both the State and Federal Government for money so this can happen.
"It's not going to happen overnight but we really need to start the process."
Councillors voted unanimously to support the mayoral minute, which also included formally requesting staff to identify potential sites for a new control centre and thanking emergency services staff and volunteers for their service during the current crisis.
