THE cost of transporting prisoners to Melksham following the closure of cells in Salisbury is spiralling upwards as new figures reveal it is now at more than £300,000.

Wiltshire Police has hired ten extra detention officers to take prisoners 30 miles to Melksham and is also forking out thousands of pounds in overtime for police officers covering gaps in the rota.

The Wilton Road police station closed on June 27 and, almost a year on, the city is still not only without cells but also without any news about where or when a new custody suite will be built.

This time last year, it had been confirmed that a new custody suite would be built on the old engine sheds at Salisbury Railway Station with an opening date set for June 2015 or by the end of 2015.

But then police backtracked on the plans, blaming government savings targets.

Chief Constable Patrick Geenty began a review and admitted the force would be looking at two custody units rather than three, adding that as there would always be one in Swindon, it was a question of “where best to locate the second one”.

Between £4m and £5m has been ringfenced for the new facility.

A police spokesman said a report was due before the Commissioner and senior officers on Tuesday and they would need time to “carefully consider” its recommendations before any announcement was made.

From July 2014 to March 2015, the cost of transporting prisoners to Melksham from Salisbury was £285,300, with £80,460 being overtime payments.

In the same period, arrest figures in Salisbury dropped by a third from 1,473 between July 2013 and March 2014 to 983.

Police say the results are “not statistically significant” and reflect similar national and countywide reductions. And they say a number of arrests took place solely at the old police station — for example, people arrested after attending for interview.

Since prisoners have been taken to Melksham, arrests at Melksham Police Station have almost doubled from 92 between July 2013 and March 2014, to 174 between July 2014 and March 2015.

Temporary assistant chief constable Paul Mills, who is leading the review, said police only transported prisoners when civilian detention officers were needed elsewhere.

“If they are required to work on the team it is on an overtime basis,” he said. “This means that there is no impact on frontline police officer numbers working in the Salisbury area.

“I would like to stress that we are spending less on custody staffing at the present time than when Salisbury custody was open.”