YEOVIL NEWS: Police to move into Yeovil Fire Station

POLICE officers and firefighters will operate under one roof with plans to move the Yeovil policing team into Yeovil Fire Station.

The announcement comes following a decision by Avon and Somerset Constabulary to close the police cells in Yeovil, after the facility was deemed no longer suitable.

An independent report by the Home Office stated that the cells were no longer compliant with the latest Home Office standards. The cost of replacing the old cells with a new custody building was estimated at £8.5million.  The Chief Constable and the Police and Crime Commissioner felt this could not be justified given the current use of the cells which has halved since 2010.

Instead the Constabulary will operate a detainee transport service at peak times of demand, where police staff will transport people who have been arrested to Bridgwater Police Centre, allowing police officers to continue patrolling their local area.

Avon and Somerset Constabulary is actively seeking two new strategic sites to locate response teams.

In 2014, Avon and Somerset Constabulary identified Yeovil Police Station for closure as part of its estates strategy and since then has been working on identifying and confirming an alternative location and arrangements for the services currently delivered from Yeovil.

The commitment to retaining a visible policing presence and a fixed location in a local community such as Yeovil, when police are looking to re-locate a station, is reiterated in its recently revised Estates Strategy 2016.

Built in 1962, Yeovil Fire Station will become Avon and Somerset’s first joint Fire and Police Centre, ensuring that Yeovil retains a policing footprint and offering to build on opportunities for the two emergency services to work more closely together.

Detailed discussions will now take place between Fire and the Police to establish the logistics of the move.  Avon and Somerset Police will imminently be offering the current Yeovil Police Station to market, ensuring the police estates is sold for its maximum value, making the required savings for investment into frontline policing.

More news on this later.

Tags:
News.