Agenda item

The Chief Fire Officer and Director of Community Safety introduced the report. He highlighted the following:

-       Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue Service responded to 6,200 incidents during the year of the report, which was almost one an hour.

-       The Service’s average response time was 9 minutes and 12 seconds and maintaining that was a key challenge. However, the Service’s new policy of not attending fire alarms when they actuate was likely to have a disproportionate impact on that time because alarms disproportionately go off in built-up areas closer to Oxfordshire’s 25 fire stations.

-       the Service’s prevention and protection work, including Safe and Well visits to over 2,300 vulnerable households in the year of the report, which resulted in 208 referrals of households on to other partners

-       a 44% reduction in the number of road traffic incidents in the year of the report

-       Changes to the storage of breathing apparatuses on the Services’ vehicles to reduce the risk of contamination

-       the work of Trading Standard and the Joint Oxfordshire Resilience Team

The Committee noted that it had been less than a year since they received the report for the year 2023-24. The Chief Fire Officer and Director of Community Safety said that this was because of the excellent work of his team, especially the Performance Improvement Manager, in producing the document quicker than last year for the Committee’s consideration.

The Committee further noted the fact that 2,310 of callouts in the year of the report, 49 per cent of the total, were false alarms. In response to a question from the Chair, officers confirmed that this number was reducing because of the new policy of not responding to automatic fire alarms. He said that this policy had gone out for public consultation in September 2024 and was supported by the previous Cabinet Member responsible for the Service; it was now operative across the whole of the Thames Valley. Officers said that they expected the figure in question to drop to 33 per cent in the coming year.

The Committee asked officers about the Service’s responsibility for fire service legislation and risk assessment. Officers clarified that they had a responsibility to make sure regulations were followed particularly with respect to Houses in Multiple Occupation, commercial premises, and any new builds.

In response to a question, officers clarified that the Council’s vision, as detailed in the strategic plan for 2023-25, was ‘to make Oxfordshire a greener, fairer and healthier’ place.

The Chair said that she was very impressed with the work of Trading Standards; they had recovered over £100,000 for scam victims during the year of the report and were believed to have blocked over 45,000 scam calls. She asked officers to pass on the Committee’s thanks to that team for its work protecting vulnerable people.

The Cabinet Member for Community Wellbeing and Safety praised the Service’s professionalism and the Chief Fire Officer’s sensitive response to the loss of firefighters’ lives at Bicester Motion on 10 June. She said that her thoughts were with all firefighters and wished the Service well for the future.

RESOLVED to note the Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue Service Annual Report for 2024/2025.