Two new public bleed kits opened this week on Cowley Road and in Littlemore, taking Oxford to six. Where they all are, what is inside, and how to get the code.

Two more public bleed kits have gone up in Oxford, one outside East Oxford Community Centre on Cowley Road and one at the shops on St Nicholas Road in Littlemore. That takes the city to six publicly accessible kits, and Oxford City Council published the full list of where they are on 13 August. (Oxford City Council, Two new lifesaving bleed kits installed to help in an emergency, 13 August 2026)

The kits were paid for by Thames Valley Police through its Stories That Hit Home project, working with the city council.

Panel listing Oxford's six public bleed kit locations and the three steps to open a cabinet in an emergency
Oxford's six public bleed kits and how to open one. Graphic by The Oxford Post, from Oxford City Council's list of 13 August 2026

Where the six are

  • East Oxford Community Centre, Cowley Road (new this week)
  • St Nicholas Road shops, Littlemore (new this week)
  • Blackbird Leys Leisure Centre
  • Blackbird Leys Road shops
  • Barton Community Centre, Underhill Circus
  • Templars Square, Between Towns Road

All six sit in the east and south of the city, in OX3 and OX4. There is no publicly accessible kit listed for the city centre, Jericho, Summertown or west Oxford.

What is in one, and how you get it open

Each kit holds tourniquets, gauze, a trauma dressing, chest seals and gloves. Like a defibrillator, it lives in a locked cabinet on the outside of a building, so it is available whether or not the building is open.

You cannot simply take one. The council sets out the sequence: in an emergency, call 999 and ask for an ambulance, and the ambulance service will give you the access code needed to open the cabinet and take the kit out.

Claire Nelson, the writer and performer of Motherhood, who worked on the Stories That Hit Home project, put the point about who may use one directly: “We also want people to realise that anyone can use these kits to help someone suffering from severe bleeding before professional help arrives. Emergency services give the code to unlock the kits and there’s instructions inside. Using one might just save someone’s life.”

Councillor Lubna Arshad, cabinet member for a safer Oxford, said: “In an emergency, every second counts. While I hope that these bleed kits are never needed, it is reassuring to know that they are there and could be the difference between life and death.”

The Cowley Road installation was marked with a free performance of Motherhood, a solo show about the effect of knife crime on parents, at East Oxford Community Centre, alongside Stories That Hit Home, a set of pieces written and performed by local people whose lives have been affected by knife crime. Both are set in Oxford and based on real events. That event has now taken place, and the council says the project hopes to keep performing at community centres in the city.

How much weapon crime is there in Oxford?

The council’s announcement does not put a number on the problem, so we looked at the Home Office street-level data that police forces publish every month.

Police recorded 34 possession of weapons offences within one mile of Oxford city centre in the 12 months to June 2026, the latest month published. The monthly count ran between one and six, with the highest month September 2025 (6) and the lowest January 2026 and May 2026 (1 each). (police.uk open data, crimes-street possession of weapons, Thames Valley Police, July 2025 to June 2026)

Two things that figure is not. It is not a count of woundings or assaults, which are recorded under violence and sexual offences: there were 156 of those in the same one-mile area in June 2026 alone. And it is not the whole city, because the one-mile circle is centred on the middle of Oxford and does not reach Blackbird Leys, Barton or Littlemore, where four of the six kits are. Street-level records are also mapped to the nearest street or landmark rather than an exact address.

What it means for you

Learn the sequence now, not on the day. The part people get wrong is assuming the cabinet needs a key or a trained responder. It does not. Ring 999, ask for an ambulance, and the code comes from the call handler. The instructions are in the bag.

Know your nearest one. If you live or work in Cowley, Littlemore, Blackbird Leys, Barton or around Templars Square, one of these six is close to you. If you are in the centre, north Oxford or the west of the city, none of the six is nearby, so the 999 call is the whole of the response available to you.

Severe bleeding is measured in minutes. The council’s own wording is that severe bleeding “can lead to death within minutes”, which is why the kits sit outside on a wall rather than behind a reception desk.

We publish Oxford stories from official records every week. The rest of our coverage is on the Oxford news page.