Consultation on proposals to improve Oxfordshire’s Fire and Rescue Service

We’d like your feedback on proposed changes to our Fire and Rescue Service.

We’re asking for your views on proposed changes to how we respond to emergencies, ensuring that we have more fire engines consistently available and to overall enable us to get to incidents across Oxfordshire more quickly than we can now.

This public consultation seeks your views on a range of proposals designed to: 

• Match resources to risk, based on an understanding of where incidents are most likely to happen across Oxfordshire to ensure that the right level of cover is available in those areas.

• Improve community safety, with the service continuing to conduct prevention and protection work, but reshaped and enhanced to meet the changing needs of Oxfordshire’s communities.  

• Futureproof the service by reviewing how it operates, which will help in making informed decisions that ensure long-term sustainability and resilience.

As Oxfordshire grows and changes, we need to ensure that our fire stations, resources and people are in the right place at the right time to meet the needs of our communities and improve the safety, efficiency and resilience of our service.

Currently, there are fewer firefighters on duty during the day resulting in fewer fire engines being available at the times when emergency risks are highest for our communities. In contrast, we have more firefighters at night, which means we have more fire engines despite emergencies being less frequent during those hours. This imbalance can cause slower response times during the day and increases the need for costly overtime to maintain adequate coverage.

The proposals we have developed have been informed by modelling undertaken by an independent third party. In this document. you can read more about what we currently do, why we’re suggesting these changes, and the potential benefits and impacts in the consultation document and supporting information.

Your feedback will help us identify if we need to make any changes to the proposals before they are considered by Oxfordshire County Council’s Cabinet.

Before you start the survey:

Please read the consultation document. You’ll find it on the right-hand side of this page (or below if you’re using a mobile phone).

Further information

Five online meetings are taking place where the proposals will be explained in detail and there is an opportunity to put forward questions and ask points for clarification.

Want to join one of our meetings?

Just fill out the booking form and we’ll send you a link to join the meeting you’re interested in.

We recommend attending a meeting before completing the survey — it might help answer any questions you have and give you a clearer understanding before you respond.

This consultation will run for 12 weeks from 28 October 2025 until 20 January 2026.

This survey should take between 10 - 15 minutes to complete, depending on what you’d like to tell us

Click on the ‘TAKE SURVEY’ button below or click here.

Thank you for taking the time to look at our proposals and providing your views.

What happens next?

The feedback from this consultation will help to shape the decision making around the changes to Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue Service’s cover model.

The service will review the feedback and prepare a report for Oxfordshire County Council’s Cabinet. This report will be considered alongside a range of other information, for example financial information, legal information, an equalities impact assessment, a climate impact assessment etc. at a public meeting in spring 2026 at which a decision will be made about the implementation of any changes.