High Wycombe Fire Station should be ‘knocked down’, a Buckinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service officer has said.

The service’s director of finance and assets Mark Hemming provided an update on the site during a meeting of the executive committee.

‘Significant refurbishment’ is required at the station but will have to be carried forward to the 2025-26 year, the service said in a report, as there was a ‘risk’ to repairs being completed by the target of March next year.

Mr Hemming said: “Wycombe is a big piece of work. Ideally, we would knock the whole thing down and rebuild it from scratch. We just don’t have the money to do that at the moment.

“But we are going to bring back an options paper next year as to all the different things we could do with the Wycombe site. Probably the biggest challenge in our estate is Wycombe.”

Condition surveys on the service’s estate are carried out every five years, but issues raised for High Wycombe Fire Station have ‘slipped’, meaning upgrades are being pushed back.

Wycombe is one of the service’s ‘biggest items’ according to Mr Hemming, who told the meeting the station was rated D, compared to most of the service's A, B and C rated properties.

Works the service has carried out at the station include improvements to employee welfare, including mess areas and dormitories.

Surveys of Wycombe revealed the station needed upgrades to walls, flooring, doors, lighting, heating, windows, doors and pipework.