Consultation could see closure of Henley Fire Station

A FIRE station in Henley is at risk of closure following an assessment of resources across Oxfordshire.

Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue has recently completed a review looking into how the service delivers its emergency response across the county.

Oxfordshire County Council is now holding a public consultation to ensure that the right level of cover is available in high-risk areas and “futureproof” to ensure long-term sustainability and resilience.  

It said that Henley’s on-call station in West Street was one of three stations, including Woodstock and Eynsham, that are being considered for closure due to “persistent low fire engine availability”.

The council said: “This is because, 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 make themselves available based on their outside of the fire service work and family commitments.”

It said that, if they were to go ahead, the closure was forecast to have “a minimal impact” on overall response performance due to the ability to deliver a fire engine response from surrounding stations.

The consultation comes as the service is currently struggling to recruit on-call firefighters. These are paid members of the service who receive the same training as full-time firefighters, but instead of being based at the station, they are called out to respond to incidents when alerted.

Oxfordshire has seen a 36 per cent reduction in the number of full-time equivalent on-call firefighters over the last 10 years, affecting the ability to respond to emergencies when demand is highest, which is during the day.

The council said that there is currently greater availability of resources (fire engines and firefighters), at night, when demand is lowest, and lower availability during the day, when demand is higher, impacting on response times in the day.

The station in Henley is no exception the Henley Standard reported in December last year that the station was looking to recruit up to 10 on-call firefighters to join its team.

The council said its proposals included considering how, where and when wholetime and on-call firefighters operate “to enable the service to better meet demand day and night across all of Oxfordshire.” to improve both emergency response times.

The main proposal the council is consulting on involves creating five-day shift fire engines in Wallingford (or Crowmarsh), Faringdon, Witney, Bicester and Chipping Norton. This will be done by the reallocation of firefighters from existing roles, including crewing on one of Rewley Road’s fire engines. This is to help address fire engine staffing levels elsewhere in the county.

A further option involves moving the fire engines from Rewley Road and Kidlington fire stations to a new fire station location towards the north of Oxford, with the aim of improving response times to the surrounding area and creating an accessible station for firefighters outside the city centre

For Thame, one of the proposals involves the removal of the second fire engine at the town’s fire station.

Councillor Jenny Hannaby, Oxfordshire County Council’s Cabinet Member for Community Wellbeing and Safety, encouraged residents to take part in the consultations.

She 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.”

Rob MacDougall, Oxfordshire County Council’s fire and rescue service’s Chief Fire Officer, 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 consultation will be available from Tuesday, October 28 2025. Go to: www.letstalk.oxfordshire.gov.uk

A full report will be in the Henley Standard this week.