Oxfordshire Council raises concerns over proposed fire station closures
West Oxfordshire District Council has expressed concerns about proposals to close several fire stations in the area, urging the county council for more detailed information on how the changes could affect local communities.
Last updated 9th Jan 2026
Oxfordshire County Council recently launched a consultation on a range of changes to the county’s fire and rescue service, including:
Closing fire stations in Eynsham, Woodstock and Henley.
Replacing Rewley Road and Kidlington stations with a single new facility in north Oxford.
Introducing five day-shift fire engines in Wallingford (or Crowmarsh), Faringdon, Witney, Bicester, and Chipping Norton.
Implementing 12-hour shifts and reducing staff, with a minimum of 42 firefighter redundancies.
The council’s overview and scrutiny committee discussed the proposals at a meeting on Wednesday, January 7, considering whether to formally oppose the closures.
The committee highlighted several concerns:
- The proposals could disproportionately affect West Oxfordshire.
- Recruitment alternatives had not been explored as an option to avoid station closures.
- The potential impact of future housing growth had not been fully considered.
- The council requested worst-case response time data, rather than averages, if Eynsham and Woodstock stations were closed.
More assurance was sought that the new north Oxford facility would actually go ahead.
The committee decided to oppose the closure of Eynsham and Woodstock stations under the current proposals.
Councillor Liam Walker said:
“We have an opportunity to try and get the county council to delay this decision until we’ve got far more data. We don’t know where the new fire station is going to be… there’s just so many hurdles the county council needs to jump through before bringing it to the public.”
Chief Fire Officer Rob McDougall attended the meeting and was questioned for over an hour. He explained that:
“The challenge we’re facing on a daily basis is the availability of our on-call fire engines during the day. The reality is the Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue service is reliant on on-call firefighters… if we remove a fire station from a given area it will have an impact locally. But the reality is the three stations we’re having conversations about, the availability of those fire engines is quite minimal.”
He added that a new fire station in north Oxford could be built by 2029 at the earliest.
After the meeting, councillor Ruth Smith said:
“There was not enough information to allay the fears of residents in Eynsham and Woodstock, who will surely face much longer response times but have not had that acknowledged. We were able to write a nuanced and detailed response, calling for up-to-date data on Eynsham’s capacity and consideration of future development in Witney, amongst other things. It was more meaningful than a blunt motion to oppose.”
Councillor Walker also thanked fellow councillors for supporting the motion, adding:
“These stations save lives, and any plan that weakens our emergency response puts residents at real risk. This should never be about party politics – it must be about public safety. I hope more councillors now reflect on what is truly best for residents and stand against these damaging closure plans.”
The public can respond to the Oxfordshire County Council consultation until Tuesday, January 20.