THE decision to close Oxfordshire fire service’s control room in Kidlington could affect response times and put the public at risk, warned union bosses.

The control room, which receives 999 calls and dispatches fire crews, will close on December 10.

It will merge with the control rooms from Berkshire and Buckinghamshire’s fire services at a new base near Reading.

Sixteen staff at the Kidlington control room will lose their jobs, with only one moving to the new centre in Calcot.

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Four will take on other jobs within the fire service and one will work for Oxfordshire County Council.

Fire Brigades’ Union executive council member for control staff Sharon Riley said: “The reduction in the number of control rooms and the professionals working within them is a risk to resilience, public and firefighter safety.

“The proposals to close Oxfordshire control room and outsource services to a Thames Valley control room venture is ill thought out and an insult to the professionalism of our members working in Oxfordshire fire control.

“Only last month members proved their worth when dealing with challenging circumstances arising out of the Didcot power station fire.”

FBU Oxfordshire branch secretary Mark Ames added: “It is disappointing that the control room has had to close and it is disappointing that experienced and dedicated controllers staff have had to be made redundant.

“I hope that the local knowledge that the Oxfordshire operators have does not disappear at the new fire control centre.

“We have spent many years building up that knowledge.”

Plans to close the centre were first mooted in 2004 when the Labour government proposed regional control rooms.

This plan was scrapped by the current government when it came to power in 2010 and replaced by plans for smaller mergers.

In December 2012 the three fire services agreed to merge their control rooms.

Oxfordshire County Council, which is responsible for the fire service in the county, said the service expects to save £275,000 a year by 2017/18 as a result of the merger.

County Council spokesman Marcus Mabberley said: “While there will be financial savings this was never the prime motivation behind the merger.

“The need to create an effective and efficient system using the latest technology following the end of the Government’s regional control room proposals was the basis for the proposals.”

Mr Mabberley denied there would be an impact on local knowledge or response times.

He said: “Local crews attending incidents will of course retain their local knowledge.

“Investment in technology will support the expert control room staff to identify the caller and incident location more quickly than currently.

“The new mobilising system will also have up-to-date technology that will identify the location of all available resources and then calculate the quickest resources.

“This supports our aim of ensuring the speed and weight of response is the most efficient and effective to deal with all incidents within the county.”

 

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