Airwave Helps Local Authorities Gain Efficiencies

The Airwave radio communications service, which supports the UK’s national public safety community, is helping local authorities to work more effectively and save money.

Using the Airwave service, council officials can now talk to each other as well as liaise more easily with other agencies such as the police.  This means fewer people need to attend the scene in order to manage planned and unplanned operations.  The result is a better use of time and resources, and cost savings, as local authorities do not need to form a control room to co-ordinate communications and activity.

Rob Walley, chairman of the Multi Agency Airwave User Group and former civil protection manager at Brent Council, knows first-hand the benefit of using Airwave.  Brent Council redeemed their original investment in Airwave by making real cash savings as a result of no longer having to set up a control room to manage lower level incidents.  This was achieved by delegating management of incidents to personnel ‘on the ground’ who used the Airwave service to co-ordinate effectively with colleagues and the police.

Mr Walley said: “We previously relied on mobile phones, but with the Airwave service we gained near-instant communication and could involve lots of colleagues or other agencies such as the police.  We found it helped us to manage operations more easily, and interoperability with the police was much easier.

 “Because it changed the way we worked we were able to rely less on a control room to coordinate activity and instead use resources more effectively, involving the right people in the right way.  It’s difficult to quantify but this has helped us save money and to work more effectively.”

A survey by Brent Council found that using the Airwave service had resulted in faster communication for routine issues, improved responses to requests for council personnel and resources and enhanced management of incidents requiring a multi-agency response.

David Sangster, Director of UK Services at Airwave, said: “Local authorities are having to balance the need to manage costs while delivering high quality public services.  This means working smarter and managing precious resources more effectively.  Airwave is now working with over 130 local authorities, helping them to co-ordinate their teams during routine and non-routine incidents, as well as to liaise more closely with other Airwave service users such as the police.”

Airwave’s local authority customers use Airwave Direct, a fully-managed service which gives access to the Airwave network, a choice of terminals and comprehensive support.

Source: www.airwavesolutions.co.uk