SOUND tests could be carried out in Oxford’s towers after residents warned the new alarm system was too quiet.

It followed an incident on Monday morning in which families fled Windrush Tower after a false alarm.

New fire alarms have been fitted as part of the £20m refurbishment, which trigger alarms on neighbouring floors and automatically call Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue Service in the event of a blaze or smoke.

But Lee Jackson, who lives in the tower in Knights Road, warned Blackbird Leys Parish Council on Tuesday night: “We can’t hear the smoke alarms.

“The old fire alarms were much louder. People may not realise the problem.”

It was agreed the alarms should be tested to check residents could hear them, and Stephen Clarke of the city council also said the council would compile a list of residents who were hard of hearing.

Mr Clarke said: “I want to go through all the households to pick up when someone is hard of hearing. We should have been doing that before, I can’t get my head around why that didn’t happen.”

People hard of hearing could be alerted through an LED flashing alarm or bed shaker.

Mr Clarke added the council would also try to speak with known ‘significant hoarders’ with large quantities of flammable items in their homes.

He said: “We have a support team that will try and cajole people to work with mental health services to sort it out.

“We are also working with Environmental Health.”