Chipping Norton calls for town fire service to be protected from impending cuts

Deputy Town Mayor Cllr Steve Akers said the whole community and surrounding villages must rally to save their dedicated local firefighters.

“Many of the Chipping Norton fire-crew will lose their jobs as retained firefighters under proposals from Oxfordshire Fire & Rescue Service, out for public consultation until January 20,” he said.

“The crew has worked extremely hard over the past few years improving their daytime availability by recruiting for daytime hours. The staff that cover these hours will be forced out of their jobs if the proposals go ahead.”

The proposals put forward by Oxfordshire County Council (OCC) affect the whole county and would mean;

• Closure of Eynsham, Woodstock and Henley fire stations and the merger of Rewley Road and Kidlington at Kidlington

• Loss of six fire appliances

• Loss of 42 firefighters

• removal of the specialist rescue tender from Kidlington.

Opponents say the plans would force crews to work unsafe 12-hour shifts.

Mr Akers says fire cover at night would be drastically reduced with only be five guaranteed fire engines across the whole of Oxfordshire.

“If a retained crew is not available at night due to job losses, cover for the Chipping Norton area would be reliant on appliances having to come from Banbury over 13 miles away,” he said.

'Whilst these proposals state Chipping Norton might get full-time firefighters during the day, night cover would be from miles away.

“This is completely unacceptable. In a fire, traffic accident or any life-threatening incident, every second counts - especially at night. I consider the proposals dangerous and irresponsible. They should be withdrawn.

“Our dedicated and highly-trained firefighters are valued members of our community. They know our area well. They have years of experience of covering our area. We are determined they should not lose their jobs.”

OCC says the proposals are designed to match resources to risk and to improve community safety. The service would continue to conduct prevention and protection work, but would be ‘reshaped and enhanced to meet the changing needs of Oxfordshire’s communities’.

The county says the plans would ‘futureproof the service by reviewing how it operates, which will help in making informed decisions that ensure long-term sustainability and resilience’.

"As Oxfordshire grows and changes, we need to ensure that our fire stations, resources and people are in the right place at the right time to meet the needs of our communities and improve the safety, efficiency and resilience of our service.

“Currently, there are fewer firefighters on duty during the day resulting in fewer fire engines being available at the times when emergency risks are highest for our communities. In contrast, we have more firefighters at night, which means we have more fire engines despite emergencies being less frequent during those hours. This imbalance can cause slower response times during the day and increases the need for costly overtime to maintain adequate coverage,” they say.

Chipping Norton’s is urged to complete the on-line consultation and oppose the current proposals.

The Fire Brigades Union (FBU) has released a guide to completing the consultation. It says the cuts would put public safety at risk, and deepen a crisis in recruitment and retention of firefighters.

The OCC consultation document link is here.