Concerns over plans to shut fire station control rooms have been rejected by the community safety minister.
The public will not see any change under the proposal to cut the number from eight to three across Scotland, Roseanna Cunningham told MSPs.
She defended the plan after claims from Labour and Liberal Democrats it amounts to a cut in frontline services.
“What is being looked at at the moment does not affect the outward-looking public face of the fire service,” she said at the Scottish Parliament. The public will not see any change.
“When an emergency call comes in, the same appliance will be sent out from, most likely, exactly the same fire station as previously, with the possible exception of the improved service that will come from there no longer being boundaries.”
Five different IT services across the control rooms makes it “almost impossible” to work as a single unit at present, she said.
The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service board agreed last month to scale back an original plan to close six control rooms, keeping three open instead.
Only one, at Johnstone in Renfrewshire, is certain to remain open. It is the busiest control room in Scotland and deals with about half of all calls.
Aberdeen, Inverness, Dundee and Edinburgh are in the running for the other two places. Dumfries, Thornton in Fife and Maddiston near Falkirk will not be considered.