Chasetown Police Station. Pic: BrownhillsBoy

The presence of officers in Burntwood will not be hit by the sale of Chasetown Police Station, Staffordshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner has said.

Chasetown Police Station. Pic: BrownhillsBoy
Chasetown Police Station. Pic: BrownhillsBoy

The building has been sold to local construction company Cameron Homes.

Police and Crime Commissioner Matthew Ellis said the sale was a good deal for taxpayers – and that it would actually allow for an increase in officers in the town.

“The Chasetown building has been broadly unused for a couple of years and the sale has been completed achieving an excellent sale price,” he said. “This will reduce borrowing and help the presence of more community policing.

Matthew Ellis
Matthew Ellis

“Numbers are set to increase by over a hundred officers at the most local level in neighbourhoods. The opportunities for police to share buildings with the fire service are being developed and prioritising the presence of more officers in local communities will remain the top priority.”

The deal was part of a long-term examination of Staffordshire Police’s estates, with Commissioner Ellis insisting the need for traditional bases was reducing.

“The work to rationalise estates started in 2014 and continues today,” he said. “Mobile technology means officers spend less time in police stations and more time out and about.

“It also means less reliance on desktop computers with big reductions in the space needed by police in Staffordshire.

“In short, the focus is more officers but fewer buildings. The increase in numbers of neighbourhood police officers has been possible by prioritising on street policing over bricks and mortar.”

Founder of Lichfield Live and editor of the site.

4 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Darryl Godden
5 years ago

It may not affect physical officer numbers on the ground, but it will absolutely affect officers being away from the Burntwood area to carry out prisoner processing, paperwork etc.

Given a busy shift, how does the PCC ensure the staffing levels of Burntwood isn’t affected by officers being unavailable for calls? I imagine the answer will be cover from neighbouring patches, which has a knock-on effect for those areas.

Base of operations is a strategic issue, it’s not simply about selling off property to save money.

AgitatorofPeople
5 years ago

Notice how the announcement was made “after ” the sale, and notice how PCC Matthew Ellis also forgot to mention that response officers for Lichfield, Tamworth and Burntwood will be based at, wait for it…… Burton.
Who keeps voting him in for this and why?

Nellygb
5 years ago

I live on the Chase and honestly can not remember the last time I saw one out of a car. Taking that as the current level of police presence I guess what he says is correct, there will be no reduction in policing levels in the area.
Meanwhile in the real world why centre the whole force in Lichfield (as I suspect is the final outcome of this move) when we have a fire station in Chase Terrace and as you so eloquently put it ““Mobile technology means officers spend less time in police stations and more time out and about.

“It also means less reliance on desktop computers with big reductions in the space needed by police in Staffordshire.”

Nice sound bites for the press but once again the truth will be that we end up worse off. Oh and if we got such a good deal for the tax payer why no figure put out there so we can judge that cause I for one don’t believe one word any politically motivated public servant utters.

Steve
5 years ago

A friend of mine is a police officer. At the moment, they are so demoralised, it is unbelievable.

Politicising and making all policing decisions based on budgets alone, is crazy.

It fails to understand the human cost. Even a “small incident”, can have massive impact on that person,

Massive PR budgets and very little for actual policing.