Plans to move Oxford's fire station away from its city centre base have fallen through.

Last year, deputy chief fire officer John Hurren said the search was on to find a larger site nearer the bypass.

The service had been looking in the triangle formed by Rewley Road and the points where Abingdon Road and Botley Road meet the bypass.

It said the Rewley Road base was too cramped and that firefighting training sometimes caused black smoke near residents' homes.

But Mr Hurren said on June 5 that no suitable location had been found and the move was no longer a priority.

He added: "If the opportunity arose, we would consider a move but we have not been able to find a suitable piece of land.

"Even if we did find somewhere, the move would still take years to achieve because the county council does not have any money available.

"We would have to give three years' advance warning in terms of forward planning to get the cash."

The fire service would not have a problem selling the valuable city centre site and a number of organisations are thought to have expressed an interest.

Explaining the reason for the wish to move out of the centre of Oxford, Mr Hurren had claimed that the greatest risk to life from fire was on the outskirts of the city, with dangerous fires most likely to start in lower-income homes there. Many city centre buildings are offices equipped with alarms and sprinklers and not occupied 24 hours a day. Oxfordshire Chamber of Commerce vice-chairman Iain Nicholson said the Oxford business community had not objected to the proposed move because the fire service had assured it that response times would not be affected.

He added: "The fire service has worked extremely hard to educate businesses on fire safety and we have an excellent relationship with it."