Job-cuts police force spending £30m on HQ

Building work is due to begin later this month on a new divisional headquarters in Hull for Humberside Police, with the project expected to be complete by spring 2013.

The move has raised eyebrows because Humberside faces a shortfall of £30m in its revenue budget over the next five years and will lose 139 officers and 92 civilian support staff by March 2012.

But senior officers insist the new station at Clough Road in Hull will help the force to save money because it will be cheaper to run than existing buildings.

More than 750 officers and civilians will be based at the new building, which will be funded through capital loans to be repaid over a period of between 30 and 50 years.

The force has chosen a firm to carry out the work and, subject to contracts being signed, the builders will move on to the site on April 18.

Assistant Chief Officer Phil Goatley said the new headquarters would be more energy-efficient than other buildings in the force’s estate, generating on the site more than 30 per cent of all the power it needs.

Units which are currently scattered across the city will be moved into the new premises, enabling the force to sell older buildings to help to solve its budget problems.

“I reckon we will save £750,000 a year in running costs across the estate and that will meet the debt charges,” Mr Goatley said.

“The public shouldn’t see any difference except that the incident response teams will be closer to the city centre.

“They will be closer and also more accessible because Clough Road is a major arterial route.”

The force’s current Hull divisional headquarters is at Queens Gardens police station, which senior officers believe would be too expensive to upgrade.

The new headquarters will be built on an eight-acre site formerly owned by the National Grid.

The force decided to move there in 2008 after agreeing that the location should be within a one-mile radius of the Clough Road area, west of the River Hull to avoid bridge delays and north of the city centre to reduce flood risk.

Preliminary groundwork on the site began in January and is due to be completed by Friday.