LESSONS learned following the blaze which almost destroyed the South Oxfordshire District Council headquarters have been compiled in a new report.

On January 15 last year the council offices in Crowmarsh Gifford were set alight, together with a neighbouring funeral parlour and a cottage in the nearby village of Rokemarsh.

Andrew Main, 47, admitted starting the fires and was sectioned under the Mental Health Act. The future of the council building has not yet been decided but it is thought that staff will not return and that a new office will be found, with Didcot the most likely location.

The report, noted by SODC councillors at an audit and governance committee on Monday, concluded that business continuity arrangements on the morning of the blaze were “weak”.

But after the initial shock SODC and Vale of White Horse District Council, which was also based at the building in Benson Lane, worked hard to ensure that services would be maintained with as little disruption as possible.

SODC leader John Cotton said: “We were able to provide crucial services the day after the fire, staff did fantastically but we will squeeze every ounce of information we can from this report.”

Members of the public and other interested parties were consulted about the effects of the blaze and 78 per cent of respondents were satisfied with the overall response to the fire. Only two per cent said they were very dissatisfied.

The report concluded: “The threat of a member of the public driving a car full of gas canisters through the locked glass doors of the building, and starting a fire which would gut the whole building could never have been fully anticipated and prepared for by the councils.

“It was acknowledged by senior management on the first morning of the incident that the business continuity arrangements in place were weak and would be of limited use in responding to the fire. Nevertheless, feedback from the report, officers, local responders, tenants, partners and suppliers all indicate that the councils’ response to the incident was structured, co-ordinated and efficient, and all efforts were made to minimise disruption to the delivery of services.”

Among lessons learned in the first 24 hours after the fire were that some managers did not hold a copy of their business continuity plan at home, and were not aware of their roles and responsibilities during an incident.

The key to the safe which held the councils’ IT back-up tapes was also kept on site at Crowmarsh, and was therefore not accessible during the fire.