Town needs fire station

Sir, — In support of Henley fire station, while the argument concerning its potential closure is smouldering, it makes sense to consider some irrefutable facts from published data to underline its importance to our community and those nearby.

Surely the location of fire stations should focus on population and population density. After all, the more people in an area, the greater the risk.

Clearly there are other parameters such as traffic flow and the daily migration of the working population but fundamentally, the bigger the population and density the greater the need for the emergency service to support the area.

Fact*: Henley has the second biggest population of all
21 Wards in South Oxfordshire District (the biggest being Thame by a small margin). In the most recent 2021 Census, Henley’s population was 12,186, located in an area of 5.581 sq km.

Fact*: Henley’s population density of 2,183 people per sq km is 10 times that of the density across South Oxfordshire as a whole, second only in density to Didcot.

Taking these facts into account, plus the geographical location of current fire
stations in Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire — with Henley as the epicentre bearing in mind its population and density — it becomes abundantly clear that a fire station in Henley is of paramount importance to our residents and to those in the many smaller communities surrounding the town.

Moreover, I have to disagree with Freddie van Mierlo MP when he says that closing Henley fire station could be justified, as long as there is not a negative effect on response times. Given that it would require an incident to determine if response times were indeed worse in the event of Henley fire station closing, he is basing his argument on pure speculation and thus it deserves to be shot down in flames.

*Source: www.citypopulation
.de/en/Suirelyk/southeastengl
and/wards/

Michael Hodges

Henley