THE Fire Brigade’s Union (FBU) has warned Oxfordshire’s fire service may be less able to deal with emergency conditions under plans for a single Thames Valley control centre.

At a county council cabinet meeting yesterday, FBU representative Rachel Dobson said operators would struggle to cross the region to get to work if faced with a repeat of last winter’s heavy snow.

The cabinet yesterday backed further work towards creating a merged control room with Berkshire and Buckinghamshire, but said fire chiefs should draw up contingency plans if the project collapsed. No location for a single control room has yet been made public.

Ms Dobson said all three counties’ control rooms should integrate their operations without merging in a single building.

She said: “Local staff working at a local control room stand a far better chance of getting into work in the event of severe flooding or snow.”

But deputy chief fire officer Colin Thomas said that solution was more technologically challenging and would have less chance of securing Government cash.

He told the Oxford Mail: “Staff will have to travel further. However, the Thames Valley is a fairly small geographical area if compared to Cumbria or a South East control room.”

Oxfordshire must find a way to upgrade its control room following the collapse of plans to create a single control room in the South East.