Swindon, Wiltshire & Oxfordshire

Fire Safety Compliance & Maintenance in Wantage

Fire risk assessments, fire door inspections, fire extinguisher servicing and security system maintenance for Wantage shops and flats, Grove Business Park units and new commercial premises across Wantage and Grove.

Wantage is a Vale of White Horse market town of 13,106 people at the 2021 Census, with Grove, a parish of 8,336, immediately to the north.

From our Hayes head office we travel west on the M4 to junction 14, then north on the A338 into the town. IDS Global was established in 2011 and is a member of the IFSM and the FPA.

Businesses and buildings in Wantage

Wantage's commercial centre is its large market square, where shops, some with 18th-century facades, surround the statue of King Alfred, who was born in the town around 849. The Old Town Hall on the square, a red brick Gothic Revival building completed in 1878, was converted in 2018 to retail on the ground floor with apartments above.

North-west of the town, Grove Business Park on Downsview Road describes itself as an established 32 acre science, technology and commercial park in Oxfordshire's Science Vale. Its operator lists existing buildings, a Phase One of mid-tech units and a hybrid office, laboratory and R&D building marketed as available from summer 2026, and Boston House, with 348 serviced workstations and meeting rooms. Grove Technology Park occupies part of the former RAF Grove airfield, which later passed to the UK Atomic Energy Authority. Williams Grand Prix Engineering moved its Formula One base from Didcot to Grove in 1996.

Fire Risk Assessments in Wantage

A ground floor shop on the Market Place with apartments above, like the arrangement at the Old Town Hall, raises questions about separation between the two uses and shared escape routes. A laboratory or R&D suite at Grove Business Park brings different hazards: stored chemicals, specialist plant and multiple tenants sharing one building. New schools, a care home and employment space at Crab Hill and Grove Airfield each need their own assessment once occupied.

We carry out fire risk assessments under the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 and give you a written action plan ranked by priority.

Fire risk assessments

Fire Door Inspections in Wantage

Where a building mixes commercial and residential use, the doors between the shop, the stair and each flat are what hold a fire back while people leave. If your premises are an older building in the town centre conservation area, a later conversion may have left doors with gaps, missing seals or closers that no longer shut them fully.

Our inspectors check each fire door for gaps, seals, hinges, closers, glazing and signage, record the condition of every door and tell you which faults need attention first. For shared buildings we set out which doors fall to the landlord and which to each occupier.

Fire door inspections

Fire Extinguisher Servicing in Wantage

A laboratory, a mid-tech unit on Downsview Road, a food business kitchen and a serviced office floor each call for a different mix of extinguishers. We service portable extinguishers on site, check that each type matches the risk it covers, replace discharged or condemned units and update your records.

Fire extinguisher servicing

CCTV and Intruder Alarm Maintenance in Wantage

police.uk data for the town centre (see the figures below) records criminal damage and burglary alongside shoplifting, so the cameras and alarms Wantage businesses already rely on need to work when an incident happens. We maintain existing CCTV, intruder alarm and access control systems: cleaning and aligning cameras, checking that recordings are clear and kept for the right period, testing detectors, sirens and standby batteries, and servicing door controllers and readers.

CCTV, intruder alarm and access control maintenance

Wantage conservation areas and the King Alfred statue

The Wantage Town Centre Conservation Area was designated by the Vale of White Horse District Council on 18 March 1970, and the Wantage Charlton Conservation Area followed on 28 February 1984. Neither has a formal appraisal, but the council states that conservation areas carry the same protection with or without one. Within them, substantial demolition of certain buildings over 115 cubic metres needs planning permission, and so do some minor works such as dormers, roof extensions and cladding. At the centre stands the Grade II listed statue of Alfred the Great by Count Gleichen, unveiled on 14 July 1877. If fire safety work would change the fabric of a building here, speak to the council's conservation team first.

Growth at Grove Airfield and Crab Hill

The council's Grove Airfield page, last updated in July 2022, records an allocation of about 2,500 homes with a secondary school, primary schools, a local centre and a community park, and 424 homes occupied by 6 June 2022. In August 2024 Persimmon Homes announced a further 65-home phase at its Wellington Gate development on the old airfield, which it says will total 1,500 homes. On the other side of town, the council's Crab Hill page lists 1,500 homes, a primary school, a neighbourhood centre, employment space and a care home among its approvals, with 350 homes occupied by 1 May 2022.

Wantage fire station

Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue Service runs Wantage fire station on Ormond Road, OX12. It is an on-call station, not staffed 24 hours a day, and holds one rescue engine and a 4x4 vehicle. Measures within a business's own control, such as maintained alarms and extinguishers and fire doors that close properly, remain the first line of protection.

Crime in Wantage town centre

police.uk street-level data for a one mile radius of the Market Place records 829 crimes and anti-social behaviour reports between August 2025 and July 2026. Violent crime accounts for 356 of these. Of the offences most relevant to business security, there were 64 of criminal damage and arson, 30 burglaries (nine of them in January 2026), 28 shoplifting offences and 23 vehicle crimes.

Services available in Wantage

Frequently asked questions

We are moving into a new unit at Grove Business Park. Do we need our own fire risk assessment?

Yes. Every employer and occupier is responsible for the part of the building it controls, and an assessment written for a previous tenant or for the landlord's common parts will not cover your staff, processes or stock. We review the shared arrangements with the landlord so that alarms and escape routes are covered.

Our shop on the Market Place has flats above. What should we check first?

Start with the separation between the shop and the flats, and the route residents use to leave the building. A fire risk assessment will show whether the doors, walls and ceilings between the two uses still hold back fire and smoke, and whether any alterations have weakened them.

Can fire safety improvements be made in a Wantage conservation area building?

Check before starting work. The town centre has been a conservation area since 1970, and the council says some minor works, such as dormers, roof extensions and cladding, need planning permission there. Our reports explain what each recommendation involves, so you can raise it with the council's conservation team before committing to work.

We run a new care home or school at Crab Hill or Grove Airfield. How often should the fire risk assessment be reviewed?

The law requires a review whenever there is reason to think the assessment is no longer valid, for example after changes to layout, occupancy or use. Fire doors in these buildings see heavy daily use, so regular inspection is worth building into the same schedule. A care home, where residents sleep on site and some need help to leave, should record each review in writing.

Does IDS Global cover Grove and the business parks on Downsview Road as well as Wantage town centre?

Yes. Our engineers and assessors travel from the Hayes head office along the M4 to junction 14 and north on the A338, covering the OX12 postcode area, including Grove, the new neighbourhoods at Crab Hill and Grove Airfield, and Grove Business Park.