New police station could be on the cards

Friday 14 September 2018

A new police station is a "long term goal" for Home Affairs, the committee's president Deputy Mary Lowe confirmed during a public scrutiny hearing yesterday.

Deputy Lowe was facing questions from the States Scrutiny Management Committee on how her committee was performing, and while talking about how they were making savings through amalgamations, she said a future police station with everything under one roof would be ideal.

This would be similar to the setup law enforcement now use in Jersey, where all its departments operate out of one property, making the system more efficient.

Pictured: Jersey's police HQ

Deputy Lowe said: "A new police station - the idea has been around for a while. Jersey have managed it, with everything on one site at their police station, and they have told me that it has made huge savings.

"But we do need to be realistic and reasonable, this certainly isn't something that is going to happen overnight. It could be a goal though. A new HQ, a bigger one, would make both efficiency savings and improve the efficiency of our law enforcement itself."

Currently, Home Affaris are attempting to make savings through amalgamating both its property portfolio and the various bodies under its jurisdiction. Whether this be the formation of JESCC - the Joint Emergency Services Control Centre - to receive calls for all three blue light services and other services like the coast guard, or the merging of the two law enforcement agencies on Guernsey - the Police and the Border Agency.

Adrian Lewis, who was also being questioned by the Scrutiny panel alongside Deputy Lowe, said they were sure at this point the merges had made financial improvements, and thus they would be continuing with the policy of amalgamation and savings through transformation.

This, he said, was preferable to savings through "salami slicing". 

While no sites for this potential new station were mentioned, Deputy Lowe did talk about the current lease on Ozanne Hall - the HQ of the Guernsey Financial Investigaton Unit. This, she said, was an example of a service that could be all under the roof of one main police station. That would allow the committee to save on the rent of the Hall, but also allow the GFIU to operate more closely with police. 

It was highlighted that any savings made by this would be over a 10 to 15 year period, as they would initially be offset by the capital required to invest in a new police station, or HQ for bodies such as the GFIU. 

Deputy Lowe added it was an exciting time to be involved with Home Affairs as things were "taking exciting directions". 

More information about Home Affairs' future plans are expected to come with the 2019 Budget and the December States meeting.