Adoption of Lib Dem proposals create huge Mersey police HQ savings – but should they be more?
Mersey Police Commissioner Jane Kennedy has been praised by opposition leaders on Merseyside for finally ‘listening’ in deciding to move the Police HQ to create a huge cash windfall. When she circulated a ‘consultation’ on the police estate in Merseyside in November 2014, she included no plans at all for relocating the central Liverpool Police HQ. But her announcement today of plans to for the police to leave Liverpool’s Canning Place shows a complete change of mind.
Sefton Council’s deputy Lib Dem leader Tony Dawson (above) says:
“Jane Kennnedy is now admitting that Canning Place is “hugely inefficient.” She said nothing at all about this two years ago. At that time and subsequently, I drew her attention to the glaring gap in her proposals. The Canning Place HQ site is prime sea-front real estate and not at all the sort of place that a police force needs as its HQ.”
“The police estate consultation document in 2014 ignored Canning Place and was all about neighbourhood police stations. But much has happened in the past two year about police resources and ways of working which might well require a substantial re-think.”
“I have written to Jane Kennedy to congratulate her on being able to do what few politicians ever admit doing, which has been to change direction and listen. I have also asked her for a progress report on the future of local police stations, including Southport’s.”
“The other big question that needs answering is whether the new HQ could be built in a more suitable and far cheaper site within Merseyside thus liberating more cash for precious police activities. What about Knowsley, for example? Why could the HQ not be co-located with another huge police project in Speke?”
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