More than £1 million may be invested in the fire service’s training centre at Portlethen. 

The news was warmly welcomed this week by North Kincardine Liberal Democrat councillor Ian Mollison.   

He said: “I made enquiries after Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill MSP told the Scottish Parliament at Topical Questions that there would be investment at Portlethen. This could provide jobs for staff displaced by the closure of the fire control centre at Mounthooly in Aberdeen. 

“The fire service’s local senior officer for Aberdeenshire & Moray, David Rout, confirmed that this is under consideration.

 “He told me that a strategic review of training facilities in the North of Scotland has identified a number of key capital investment opportunities across the service delivery area. 

“Mr Rout said that the Portlethen facility is an integral part of the training and employee development strategic training infrastructure due to its location, ease of access and current facilities.

“A capital investment plan has been developed for the next three financial years which includes an accumulative spend of circa £1.2m at the Portlethen site. 

“The proposed capital investment includes the purchase and installation of new compartment fire behaviour training units, a covered all-weather training facility and the upgrading of the ICT infrastructure. 

“A further proposal for the development of an incident command training suite at the site is to be considered as part of a wider incident command training strategy and forms part of the organisation service transformation programme.

“Mr Rout also told me that further investment may also be required following the outcomes of the organisation’s specialist appliances review and the need to train personnel in new specialist skills across the North.

 “He did however emphasise that these are only proposals at this time and although included within Scottish Fire and Rescue Service capital plan, they are subject to final approval by board. 

“This could be very welcome news for the Portlethen area.” 

The training centre is to the west of Portlethen, just beyond the site of the planned Hillside primary school.