A new state-of-the-art police station has been opened to serve communities in Harrogate and the surrounding area.
Members of the public can see inside the new £18m facility today (Wednesday 9 May 2012) until 7pm , ahead of the station becoming operational on 17 May.
Chief Constable Grahame Maxwell and Chairman of North Yorkshire Police Authority (NYPA), Jane Kenyon, also welcomed guests from a wide range of partner agencies before marking the opening with a ribbon cutting ceremony.
Mr Maxwell said:
The need for a new station was identified many years ago and I am delighted to see the project come to fruition. The completion of the build is the culmination of a lot of hard work and planning by a team of highly motivated and professional staff.
Police officers and staff need the right tools for the job and a fitting working environment. The new facility will provide these essential basics for many years into the future, contributing to a first-class policing service for Harrogate communities while at the same time, helping to reduce the force’s carbon footprint.
Chairman of NYPA Jane Kenyon, added:
This open day is the pinnacle of the careful and prudent financial planning undertaken over a number of years by the North Yorkshire Police Authority and force to invest significantly in the policing of Harrogate and the wider communities.
This new state of the art station will provide a fantastic base for officers and improve the working conditions of many staff. The project has come in well under budget – almost £3m – and that is absolute testament to the hard work and enthusiasm of everyone working on this build. The gratitude of all of the members of North Yorkshire Police Authority is expressed not only to those involved but also to the communities of the Harrogate Borough who have worked with us to ensure that the project has been able to progress.
When we started this ambitious project, we promised a town centre presence as well as this wonderful new facility. We have today delivered what we set out to do despite the very difficult financial situation we have recently worked through. This achievement is something of which we are extremely proud and the station will give service to the communities of Harrogate for many years to come.
Superintendent Barry Smith, the Safer Neighbourhood Commander for the Harrogate District, said:
The new station is a much welcomed facility for the officers and staff who serve the Harrogate District. We are delighted to finally be able to move in.
Providing the best possible policing service for our communities is of paramount importance and having the right tools for the job helps us to do this as quickly and efficiently as possible.
Earlier in the day, a private dedication service was held in the new Police Memorial Garden in memory of PC David Haigh, a Harrogate officer who was murdered on duty by Barry Prudhom on 17 June 1982.
The service was performed by the Force Chaplain, the Reverend Simon Rudkin, and was attended by PC Haigh’s family and senior officers. The garden will become the official memorial garden for the force.
The new station becomes operational on 17 May with the old station on North Park Road being decommissioned over the coming weeks.
The new facility will be a 24-hour operational police base. Front counter opening times will be the same as the old station on North Park Road with the front office opening to members of the public between 8am and midnight, seven days a week.
Policing services can be access 24 hours a day by calling the non-emergency number 101, or 999 in an emergency, if your safety is threatened or if you see a crime in progress.
As a short-term measure, North Yorkshire Police has also opened a town centre police station to provide access for members of the public in the centre of Harrogate. Craven Lodge on Victoria Avenue is just metres away from the old station on North Park Road.
The force has also welcomed proposals from Harrogate Borough Council to purchase the North Park Road site for the development of new council headquarters. This gives North Yorkshire Police the option to co-locate with the council, providing a permanent town centre base in the longer term.
During the construction of the new station, 50% of all contractors employed by the construction company, GB Building Solutions, were from Harrogate or the surrounding area. The local economy has also benefited with contractors using local hotels and guest houses, sandwich shops, cafes and restaurants.
Key facts about the new Harrogate Police Station
- Cost £18m – £2.8m under original budget. This has been met by efficiency savings and income raised from the sale of outdated and unused property.
- The station took 14½ months to build
- New town centre police station is now operational to ensure the police remain accessible to people in the town centre
- The building includes a 16-cell custody block built to Home Office standards
- The building is set to achieve an excellent rating under the Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM)
- Air source heat pumps are installed, and photovoltaic panels will generate power to make the building as sustainable as possible
- Levels of CO2 emissions from the build were monitored during construction
- A park and ride service was put in place for contractors working on the site
- 20,000 cubic metres of soil removed from the site was re-used on the site
- The sub-soil was used on a nearby site
- Excavated rock was crushed and used as aggregate
- The constructors scored an excellent 37 out of 40 under the Considerate Constructors Scheme
- The contractors have donated waste metal and timber to Harrogate charity Horticap and provided building expertise to help with the construction of a new workshop facility www.horticap.org
- Horticap used the waste materials to raise funds
- Leaves from the site were given to the charity to turn into mulch to sell
- A police memorial garden has been incorporated into the grounds
- The artwork around the station was designed by local schoolchildren and students
How many police officers can we get for £18m?
How much crime is commited on Cardale Park?
We need the police to be in the town centre where the drunks, the crime, the time wasting pub drinkers and fighters are and the police can react to quickly.
We need the quick reaction of the police and with them being kept all the way up the top of the hill near Cardale when we need all our officers located in the town centre being able to radiate outwards to incidents.
How will officers respond quickly to an event in Starbeck at the other end of the town?
This new building is a ridiculous shambles of planning and a complete waste of the publics money. I’d put whoever planned and authorised this in the cells myself (of the old police station).
The building has come in under budget and there is capital being released through the old station being sold. The money will have come from a capital budget rather than revenue so wouldn’t be available for staff.
It’s not relevant the crime just on Cardale Park – the police station will service the region.
The police don’t just sit at their desks waiting for a call. They are also on patrols. Don’t forget there is also a town centre station (near to the job centre) that is a base for the town centre team.
In terms of response times, the cars responding would likely be on patrol so there would be no change.
The building itself isn’t luxury it has been designed with a specific purpose in mind. The old station was failing apart and was at end of life. The location of it would have been driven by the limited availability of a plot of the size needed. The new station gives a lot of benefits to the police in managing individuals in custody, managing incidence and crime prevention work. I believe it was designed by a team who have designed many of the police stations in the UK.
I am fully supportive of the new station as being a good decision. It can only help the local officers deliver a better level of service (even in a very low crime area like Harrogate) and we should support them.