HAMPSHIRE’S fire control centre could be merged with neighbouring counties including Dorset as bosses try to modernise the service and cut costs This comes as it has been revealed that the “white elephant” regional control super-centre that was abandoned last year is set to cost taxpayers £2m a year as it lies unused.

And the head of Hampshire’s fire authority believes the state-of-the-art control room at Segensworth could lie empty for a quarter of a century – draining more than £50m of public cash.

Royston Smith also admitted jobs could be lost if Hampshire’s existing control centre, which deals with all 999 fire calls and live incidents in the county, is combined with those covering other counties across southern England.

The plans for a potential merger, which fire chiefs insist are at an early stage, come following the scrapping of the south east regional control centre, one of nine axed after a string of delays and spiralling costs. It is understood each county would keep its own centre, but services could be pooled overnight when there are fewer calls to save costs.

But Coun Smith said while the service will have to spend money in the next three years updating its centre at Eastleigh, there is “no chance” of it moving to the ready-made brand new one on its doorstep, because it is too big and too high tech.

He said: "We are now looking around, with other fire services, to share facilities. Wiltshire and Dorset are on our doorstep, but we’ve also talked to Avon and Somerset.”