THIS week’s announcement of the decision by Wiltshire’s chief constable to delay the conversion of the Wilton Road police station into Salisbury’s University Technical College until 2015 will undoubtedly have caused concern among those who hoped to start there in 2014.

Ever since the plan was made public, I received assurances from the police that the proposed move was feasible within the timescales proposed.

Since every officer I spoke to confirmed that it was tight but possible, with no risk to the service to the public, I was happy to support their operational judgement.

Therefore I met with the chief constable last Friday to discuss his reasons and he assured me that the only difference between the news on June 24 and the situation today is that the start date will be 2015 and not 2014.

He has not changed his view that the police must leave their under-occupied station at Wilton Road, and he remains 100 per cent committed to ongoing collaboration with Wiltshire Council to provide a new purpose-built police facility.

However, he and I have been in agreement throughout that ultimately Salisbury must retain a permanent custody suite.

Having received new information that meant the delivery of such a facility would not be guaranteed if the police moved out of the building by April 2014, he exercised his prerogative and took the decision to delay the conversion of the building.

It is, of course, a shame for the prospective students for 2014/15. However, I have since spoken to the leader of Wiltshire Council and to the UTC leads, as well as the education minister Lord Nash.

There is unequivocal agreement all round that the UTC will open in 2015 in the Wilton Road building and that all the necessary funding and support will remain in place until then.

The combination of improved purpose-built facilities for the police, the retention of the Wilton Road building for public use and much-needed new educational provision for our young people remains a positive outcome.

I supported the decision by the police to pursue it six weeks ago and I now support the chief constable in the difficult operational decision he has had to take.