Force starts planning move to new £26m headquarters

The 26m divisional headquarters with a 40-cell custody suite on a former gasworks site on Clough Road will replace Queens Gardens police station in the city centre.

The force is also looking to relocate a number of functions from Tower Grange police station.

The force has a number of reasons for wanting to move.

It needs to comply with new national standards for custody suites, and says the quality and number of cells at Queens Gardens, a site it has occupied for 50 years, are inadequate.

Up to 460 police officers could be based at the headquarters, which will be made up of four separate four storey office blocks connected by an atrium, along with 300 support staff.

A finance committee of Humberside Police Authority meets at the end of the month to look at the cost of relocating additional officers to Clough Road, including the crime and incident management unit and the operation support section, both currently based at Tower Grange, from where the latter provides search, firearms and tactical support, the property store on Bontoft Avenue and the East incident response team from Bransholme Police Station. The headquarters could also host the silver tactical command centre.

A report says the forecast project cost is just a shade under 27m "leaving little or no opportunity to include added value elements unless additional funding can be obtained".

However, it also says the force could make money from selling existing buildings like Tower Grange police station, and they would also save 40,000 rent for their property store on Bontoft Avenue. The Queens Gardens site is also a prime target for redevelopment.