Police listen to concerns about station closure

10:12am Thursday 11th October 2012 in Salisbury Letters

I have written to Chief Constable Patrick Geenty and Salisbury Inspector Andrew Noble about the possible closure of Salisbury Police Headquarters, and sent 300 signatures collected in three days in support of keeping our police headquarters building open.

On October 3, I spoke to Insp Noble and feel much more informed.

Firstly, the actual building and land the present headquarters is on belong to Wiltshire Police, so if the headquarters were to be closed, then any money from the sale or development would go straight back into Wiltshire Police funds to help preserve our force’s numbers and services and increase numbers when needed.

Insp Noble reminded me that as long as he has access to all the relevant services the police need and maintains the staff here, then the Five Rivers community campus is nothing to be afraid of.

I strongly believed we needed an imposing building to tell everyone we had a strong, effective, well-manned police force. I was wrong. The police and other related services we may all need to access, will be better placed somewhere like the Five Rivers community campus.

What I intend to do as an individual and a council tax payer, is to attend any meetings that are going to be held in the future about the police and the Five Rivers community campus.

Insp Noble represents a breath of fresh air for the city.

I was beginning to have serious worries for our safety, but crime rates are, and will continue to be, checked by our police.

DENISE ROE, Salisbury

Comments(5)

macogan says...
9:19pm Thu 11 Oct 12

So the fact the police will have to travel 1 hour to transport people to the custody area in melksham or Swindon and the amount of fuel and time the officers will have to spend away from the streets is of no concern?? when this story first broke everyone including lawyers said this will have disastrous consequences for are community so with the extra travelling time you could be looking at 4 hours before the officers can be back on the street. How closing such an important police station could be given the green light is disgusting and replaced with a COMMUNITY CENTER!!!! ...

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c skelton says...
9:53pm Thu 11 Oct 12

I'm standing as an independent candidate in the Police and Crime Commissioner elections. I would not shut Salisbury Police station.

The loss of such a strategic station would send the wrong message to the community, its sends the message "we don't care" and to our criminal friends it highlights that "we're not there". Both the wrong sort of signals to send.

From an efficiency point of view, with about 3000 arrests in and around the Salisbury area each year, the additional transport time to and from Melksham (3 hours each for two officers) equates to 18000 man hours or the loss of about 12 full time Police Officers from our streets. These are lost soley to prisoner transport.

This is unacceptable. We should be implementing policies that place Officers out in our communities more. This proposal to shut Salisbury Police station does the opposite.

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vcg507 says...
11:11am Tue 16 Oct 12

Mr Skelton only highlights one of the serious consequences of closing Salisbury Police Station. This proposal by Wiltshire Police has nothing to do with improving service. It is only about freeing up cash. Often in Salisbury there are only FOUR uniformed Police Officers working. If one prisoner is arrested that will tie up two officers for at least two hours as they convey them to Melksham and return to Salisbury. This leaves the City and the remaining Officers dangerously exposed. What happens if the Officers require assistance or have to make another arrest? In addition how does Wiltshire Police expect to absorb an additional 3500 detainees at their custody suite in Melksham? There are already times when there are long delays receiving prisoners. So, what will actually happen. Sadly Salisbury Police Officers will be very very reluctant to arrest anyone unless its absolutely critical. This will lead to higher crime and disorder. Please don't support the closure of your local station The results will be catastrophic.

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c skelton says...
4:50pm Thu 18 Oct 12

VCG507 is right in his analysis. The knock on effects at Melksham will be considerable. If all prisoners from the south of the county are going there, it will soon fill up and officers will then have to go to Swindon.

What happens when Swindon is full? I know this has happened on a couple of occasions and prisoners are shunted to Gloucs and S'hampton.

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aldonreaper says...
10:26am Sat 20 Oct 12

sighn of the times freinds we dont need army , police , nhs or anything else anymore, unless your a rich man, then you can get immediate response from them all

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