The 1948 Brigades

At the end of the war the Government had three choices :-
1) To keep the National Fire Service
2) To return the brigades to their former control
3) To form area Fire Brigades
The local authorities were vigorous in their demands to have control of the brigades and after much consultation and discussion a Fire Services Bill was presented to the House of Commons early in 1947, transferring the fire services to the councils. As a result the fire services in Scotland were returned to local authority control on the 16th May, 1948. Glasgow was empowered to maintain its own brigade, but to cover the remainder of Scotland the Act provided for the establishment of Joint Committees to control ten fire brigades, the constituent local authority of each being a Joint Committee which was scheduled in the Act. The number of fire brigades in Scotland was thus reduced to eleven, from a possible maximum figure of 228 before the war and they were:-

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