Residents in Bridgwater are being invited to have a look at their new  Police Station on Express Park ahead of it’s opening next month. The choice of site , on the outskirts of the town, could be seen as controversial.

Westover Councillor Brian Smedley, who has already visited the new station earlier this year, said “ The Present Bridgwater Police Station was opened in 1966 on Northgate in the Westover ward and there is obvious concern at the loss of a town centre site but we have been assured that the Police will still maintain some kind of base in the town centre itself. The Bridgwater move is part of a centralising policy the Police are putting into place across the region and Bridgwater is part of an experiment which also includes Keynsham, near Bath and Patchway, in Bristol. In that sense Bridgwater’s fortunate in being chosen out of all the other Somerset locations. However it does have the look of a Fort Apache about it and there is a real issue about maintaining a town centre presence”

A Centralised Custody Service

The Avon and Somerset Police say “The new police centres will enable us to centralise our custody service, housing a total of 132 cells for detainees across the Avon and Somerset area. The centralised centres will enable us to improve the way we manage detained people, so more police officers can be back on the street on patrol where we need them, solving crime and protecting communities. They will also provide larger, more flexible spaces for the 1000 staff based across the three centres in a variety of support functions and increase the potential for integrated working with our partners”.

Police and Crime Commissioner Sue Mountstevens said: “This is a unique opportunity to open the doors to our new state-of-the-art police centres for local residents to see. Once these buildings are operational it will be impossible to go behind the scenes like this so I would encourage all those who are interested in policing to book a tour.We are very pleased with the new police centres and the significant difference it will make for the Constabulary’s staff and processes. I hope that local people use these visits to see first-hand the difference these new police centres will make for modern-day policing.”

Assistant Chief Constable Kay Wozniak said: “Our new police centres will be in operation 24 hours a day, seven days a week so once they are fully open next month it will be impossible to allow the general public to tour the facilities. This short gap between us taking on the buildings and them being fully functional, means we have a rare opportunity to let people have a look around behind the scenes and see, in particular, how we take care of detained people. It is wonderful to be able to offer local communities a unique insight into the activities behind these new police buildings. We hope they take this opportunity to book a place on one of our tours.”

Open to the Public-but it’s ticket only

The public are being invited to visit the new Bridgwater station on Wednesday 3rd September and need to book themselves onto one of the visits –either 4,5,6,7 or 8pm. These tours are ticketed only as they are operational buildings and limited to 200 tickets for each event. Each tour will last a maximum of one hour. Tickets will be available on the dedicated website from 8.30am on Wednesday 20th August and will be released on a first come first served basis.

Bridgwater – http://bridgwaterpoliceevent.eventbrite.co.uk