Residents and businesses across Oxfordshire are being invited to help shape the future of Oxfordshire County Council’s Fire and Rescue Service.
A new public consultation will explore proposals aimed at ensuring the county’s stations, resources, and personnel are positioned effectively to meet changing community needs, enhance safety, and improve the service’s resilience and efficiency.
The consultation follows a comprehensive review of how the fire and rescue service delivers emergency response and community safety across Oxfordshire.
The review examined where and when wholetime and on-call firefighters operate, seeking to better balance demand between day and night while improving emergency response times and extending prevention and protection work to more communities.
Chief Fire Officer Rob MacDougall said:
“It’s important that we regularly review our resources, understand where incidents are most likely to happen and ensure we have the right level of emergency cover in those areas.
“We provide a fire and rescue service for the people of Oxfordshire, and I want them to play an active role in helping us plan and shape the future of the service by participating in our public consultation.”
The number of on-call firefighters in Oxfordshire has fallen by 36 per cent over the past decade, affecting daytime emergency response capacity. There are currently more firefighters available at night, when demand is lower, than during the day, when calls are more frequent.
The consultation will invite views on three main objectives:
- Matching resources to risk: Ensuring coverage aligns with where incidents are most likely to occur.
- Improving community safety: Expanding prevention and protection work across all communities.
- Futureproofing the service: Reviewing operations to ensure long-term sustainability and resilience.
Councillor Jenny Hannaby, Cabinet Member for Community Wellbeing and Safety, added:
“Your feedback is really important in helping us provide an even better fire and rescue service. The more opinions we receive, the more we can be confident that the decisions we take will deliver the kind of service you want across Oxfordshire.”
The proposals include significant changes to several stations. One key option would introduce five new day-shift fire engines in Wallingford (or Crowmarsh), Faringdon, Witney, Bicester, and Chipping Norton by reallocating firefighters from existing roles, including one engine from Rewley Road in Oxford.
Due to long-standing low staffing levels, the on-call engine at Rewley Road may also be removed.
Other options include relocating fire engines from Rewley Road and Kidlington to a new station in north Oxford to improve response times. In Thame, the removal of a second, rarely used engine is proposed, allowing crews to focus resources on maintaining a fully operational single engine.
While no station closures have been confirmed, three on-call stations – Woodstock, Eynsham, and Henley – are being considered for closure due to persistently low availability. However, any closures are expected to have minimal impact on response times, as nearby stations already provide coverage in those areas.
The public consultation will be available via Let’s Talk Oxfordshire from Tuesday, 28 October 2025.
