OXFORDSHIRE’S chief fire officer has said he’ll continue to set “very stretching” targets for the service. 

Oxfordshire’s chief fire officer Dave Etheridge, pictured, was speaking after it was revealed in Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue Service’s annual report that it missed its own response times target for the second year in a row. 

Attending 5,505 emergencies across the county in 2013/14, fire crews arrived at 76.9 per cent within 11 minutes. Its target is 80 per cent.

The previous year’s figure was 78.18 per cent

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The service responded quickest in Oxford, getting to 94.03 per cent in 11 minutes or less.

But in South Oxfordshire and the Vale of White Horse it managed only 64.36 per cent, and in Cherwell and West Oxfordshire 69.49 per cent.

Mr Etheridge said he set his force “very stretching” targets.

He said they were hit by this year’s floods and also blamed reduced speed limits, as the service has a rule not to drive faster than 10mph above the speed limit for safety. With more 20mph limits being introduced that means a limit of 30mph.

Increased traffic congestion on roads also affected fire engines.

He said: “Anything like the Hinksey Hill roadworks has a knock-on effect.”

The county council said it wasn’t always possible to provide a dedicated lane for the emergency services.

Mr Etheridge said missed targets must be looked at in the context of the total number of calls taken, down from 13,000 in 2009/10 to fewer than 10,500 in 2013/14.

In order to mobilise the nearest fire engine to any incident, the service intends to introduce an automatic vehicle location system.

Another scheme, where full-time fire crews are deputised to rural regions during the day, is also being piloted in South and West Oxfordshire.

Of the 24 county fire stations, only Rewley Road, Oxford, The Slade, Oxford, and Banbury are manned full-time.

Abingdon, Didcot and Kidlington are manned from 8am to 6pm and 18 others are purely on-call.

In 2013/14, the service spent £24,941,368, approximately 11p per day for each person in Oxfordshire, or £5,528 per incident.

To improve the force’s performance, Mr Etheridge said he wanted to continue the “fantastic” work it was doing on fire and accident prevention.

He said: “Any loss of life is a tragedy, yet the performance measure we set ourselves of no fire deaths will always be challenging.”

The number of “significant” fires in Oxfordshire was fewer than 850 last year.

County council cabinet member for the fire service Rodney Rose said it was doing a “fantastic” job and the figures were “in the ballpark “ of the targets.

 

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