Opposition to proposed super-control rooms for Britain's fire service has received a boost from councillors overseeing the Hampshire brigade.

The county's fire and rescue authority on Wednesday signalled its doubts about the wisdom of setting up a regional control centre for the South East.

Its members voted that they wanted to see conclusive evidence that the new structure would be an improvement.

The vote by the authority, made up of 25 councillors, effectively gives board-level backing to Fire Brigades' Union opposition to the Government scheme.

Under the plan, from Deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott, the existing control room at the Hampshire brigade's HQ in Leigh Road, Eastleigh, would close.

So, too, will control rooms in eight other counties - from Oxfordshire to Kent.

Instead, Mr Prescott wants one regional control room to cover south-east England, with staff in one room controlling fire engines from Eastleigh to Eastbourne and from Dover to Milton Keynes.

The union says centralised controllers cannot possibly have the local knowledge that county control rooms can use to avoid ambiguity and to speed rescuers on their way.

And, with at least three villages called Botley in the South- East, they say the scheme is bound to cause misunderstandings.

The vote went against the advice of deputy chief fire officer, John Bonney, who warned authority members against losing influence with the Government.

"We'd rather be in the tent having our say, rather than outside it with no say," Mr Bonney said.

But the authority's vote was hailed as a success by the FBU, which led a demonstration by about 30 staff outside the meeting.

The super-control room would largely rely on computers to avoid confusion over geography and the differing dispatch guidelines in the various counties - including the number of fire engines to be sent to an incident.

Sharon Eames, one of the control room staff at Eastleigh, said: "You can't rely totally on technology, as has been proved recently with various viruses and with problems in air traffic control.

"A breakdown that means operators have to look up addresses in a book could be fatal when every second counts."