‘Date stone’ cemented in place at Saxmundham joint fire and police station

Suffolk’s Police and Crime Commissioner Tim Passmore and Suffolk County Council’s cabinet member for environment and public protection, Matthew Hicks, jointly cemented into place the “date stone” for the £536,000 development in Saxmundham.

Police will move into an extension to the side of the fire station in Seaman Avenue, while internal alterations are being made to some of the existing ground floor offices for fire crews, along with additional off-road car parking spaces and cycle parking.

There will be improved facilities for staff with locker and server rooms and shared use of the toilets, showers and kitchen, and improvements to the existing community room.

The project has received grant support from the Department of Communities and Local Government.

Saxmundham Town Council has bought the old police station to create a community hub.

Mr Passmore said: “Working together with the fire service is crucial to us meeting the financial and operational challenges we face. I am very pleased with the existing shared stations across the county; they save money and improve the joint working of two key emergency services in the county, which is excellent news for us all.”

Mr Hicks added: “We have already seen significant benefits in developing ‘blue light’ stations with our partners in the police and the ambulance service in Suffolk. It saves the public purse the cost of running multiple buildings and enables emergency services to work closely together in providing services.”

Police and fire already have six shared stations at Woodbridge, Ixworth, Elmswell, Debenham, and Framlingham; and at Clare which has a drop-in base for the constabulary. Construction is ongoing on the seventh joint station in Felixstowe, which with Saxmundham will make eight in total. Further feasibility work is ongoing at Newmarket, Beccles, Leiston and Mildenhall where similar grant-aided opportunities exist.