Fire chiefs to meet public over station closure plan

A PUBLIC meeting will be held to discuss the potential closure of Henley fire station.

The meeting, on Thursday, will take place at the Christ Church Centre in Reading Road from 7.30pm.

Attendants will have the opportunity to ask questions, as part of the ongoing public consultation by Oxfordshire County Council’s fire and rescue service.

A review is being carried out into response times across Oxfordshire and the Henley station is one of three that could be axed due to “persistent low fire engine availability”.

The council says its aim is to better match cover to high-risk areas and “future-proof” the service.

It suggests closing the station in West Street would increase the first fire response time by two seconds.

A council spokesman said: “Despite the dedication of on-call employees, the pressures of modern life often mean that many of them are unable to commit to offering the hours that they once might have.”

They also said that the closure would have “a minimal impact” on overall response performance due to the ability to deliver a fire engine from a nearby station.

They added: “We’re encouraging local residents and businesses to help shape the future of the fire and rescue service through a public consultation. This public meeting is designed to provide an overview and an opportunity for those attending to ask questions.”

The main proposal the council is consulting on involves creating five-day shift fire engines in Wallingford, Faringdon, Witney, Bicester and Chipping Norton. This could include relocating Wallingford to a new £7m station in Crowmarsh.

Councillor Jenny Hannaby, the council’s cabinet member for community wellbeing and safety, said: “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 at the end of the consultation will deliver the kind of fire and rescue service you want across Oxfordshire.”

As reported in last week’s Henley Standard, there was a small fire in the car park of Hotel du Vin, in New Street, Henley, on December 23. The first engine to arrive was from the Henley station, seven minutes after the 999 call was made.

The second and third engines from Maidenhead and Windsor arrived 10 and 17 minutes after the call.

Henley town and district councillor, Stefan Gawrysiak, said: “This actually shows a clear and explicit example as to why Henley must retain its fire station.”

Town and district councillor for Henley, Kellie Hinton, said: “I think the numbers speak for themselves, really.

“There’s quite a significant difference between seven and
17 minutes, as well as the amount of damage that could have been done within that extra time.”

Following the launch of a public consultation in October, more than 1,500 people have signed a government petition to save Henley fire station, which was started by David Morris-Puttock.

In November, the Henley Standard reported comments from the wife of a Henley firefighter who said it was wrong to close the station when bosses had not done enough to sign up new recruits.

Rosie Gosby, wife of Andrew Gosby, told an online meeting of her concerns about the responsibility of recruiting new firefighters being solely on the crew.

She said: “You’re saying that Henley isn’t crewing as much as you would like, and that’s due to really rubbish recruitment.”

On December 9 about 100 protestors gathered outside County Hall in Oxford against the proposed cuts to the fire service.

Mr van Mierlo said that no “compelling data” to prove that closing the fire station would not impact response times had been produced. “Keeping Henley open is on the table,” he added.

The public consultation period will close on Tuesday, January 20.