Reacting to proposals to axe Oxfordshire fire control and move services to a combined Thames Valley control room Sharon Riley, FBU executive council member for Control, said: “These proposals are ill thought out and an insult to the professionalism of our members working in Oxfordshire Fire Control.
“Only earlier this month members proved their worth when dealing with challenging circumstances arising out of the Didcot power station fire.
“Fire crews know the value of having fully trained local control room operators as part of the team response.
“It is critical that crews and equipment are sent to the correct rendezvous points from the correct stations and that the required information is passed on to them.
“Since the abandonment of the regional control model in 2010 there has been no investment in control rooms – only cash thrown at brigades for “collaboration projects” which have not been properly risk assessed.
“The reduction in the number of control rooms and the professionals working within them is a risk to national resilience, public and firefighter safety”.
