The West Yorkshire fire control centre at Birkenshaw, Bradford, will close months later than planned in 2011, the Government said.

The move is part of a restructuring which will see England’s 46 local control rooms replaced by nine regionalised centres.

The shake-up will close the centres at Birkenshaw, Hum-berside, North Yorkshire and South Yorkshire which the Government believes can no longer cope with modern emergencies on the scale of the London terror bombings.

A new state-of-the-art control room at Wakefield, fielding calls from across Yorkshire and Humber, was expected to be fully operational by early 2011 but is now scheduled for later in the year.

Ministers believe the new base will allow firefighters to respond more quickly to incidents.

Fire Minister Sadiq Khan told MPs yesterday: “The Government is investing £380m in Fire Control and remains strongly committed to it. Major emergencies in recent years have shown us the very real challenges we face in today’s world.

“Fire Control will give all fire and rescue services access to systems and technology that only a few currently benefit from.

"It will result in greater resilience and collaboration, better information and incident support for firefighters, and a better service to the public – both day to day and during major incidents.”

Earlier this year the Telegraph & Argus revealed more than £55 million of taxpayers’ money is being spent on consultants over the plan.