HAMPSHIRE Fire and Rescue Service (HFRS) has secured £4million in Government funding to improve frontline services and strengthen its partnerships with other emergency services.

The service was given the funding for two projects as the Government announced the beneficiaries of the £75m Fire Transformation Fund.

A total of £2.6m will be used to provide a new joint fire and police service headquarters, as well as the co-location of both services at some fire stations and progression of fleet maintenance partnerships with other public services.

A further £1.39m will be used to explore how HFRS can transform its on-call services, using early-intervention vehicles to deal with smaller incidents.

There will also be further collaboration with South Central Ambulance Service (SCAS) to attend more medical emergencies, building on the success of the co-responder scheme where retained firefighters support SCAS in providing a first response.

HFRS co-responders attended around 10,000 calls last year, providing frontline aid to medical emergencies from 21 retained fire stations in some of the county’s more rural areas.

Deputy chief fire officer Dave Curry said: “This announcement is great news for the service, but most importantly for the communities of Hampshire.

“We are delighted to have secured this key Government funding and it will enable us to continue our collaborative work with Hampshire police and other emergency services to do our work more efficiently and effectively, making our organisation stronger, and people in Hampshire safer.”