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34 police stations and offices to close across Devon & Cornwall

34 police stations and offices across Devon & Cornwall are to close in the next five years as the Force strives to save £29m from its current budget.

The Police and Crime Commissioner Tony Hogg also warns there could be more cuts and job losses.

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'It feels like selling off the family silver' - Devon and Cornwall police fear impact of closures

The Devon and Cornwall police federation has told ITV News that they worry that closures of police stations and offices across the region will have a negative impact on services and staff - and could lead to job losses.

We know that if the comprehensive spending review at the end of November is as bad as we predicted, then there will be job losses, that will have a detrimental impact on policing in Devon and Cornwall and the isles of Scilly.

– Nigel Rabbits, Devon and Cornwall Police Federation

We asked Mr Rabbits to give an overview of what the impacts will be:

I think morale is very low, people come to work to try to serve the community, and they need the tools to do that.

And we have concerns over health and safety of people travelling longer distances, possibly a high speed, and that has a risk.

– Nigel Rabbits, Devon and Cornwall Police Federation

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Which Devon & Cornwall police stations are to close?

The police stations and offices planned to close in the next 5 years are:

2015-16

  • Barnstaple West Pilton - Police office closure – lease surrender – relocation to existing estate
  • Bovey Tracey - Police office closure – lease surrender and relocation to Newton Abbot
  • Callington - Police station closure – provision of community base in council office
  • Dartmouth - Police station closure – provision of community base
  • Exeter - Multi-Agency Services Hub - Lease surrender – relocation to County Hall and existing Exeter estate
  • Exeter – leased unit - Lease surrender – relocation to existing Exeter estate
  • Liskeard - Provision of replacement police station – potential tri-service location
  • OPCC office move - Lease surrender – relocation to HQ
  • Plympton vehicle workshop - Partnership co-location with city council and relocation of other functions to existing Plymouth and Plympton estate
  • St Blazey - Police station sale – provision of community base co-located with town council
  • Torpoint - Police station closure – provision of community base

2016-17

  • Beacon Park - Police station closure – relocation to existing estate
  • Braunton - Police station sale – provision of community base co-located with town council
  • Camborne traffic centre - Options include relocation to existing estate and potential partnership co-location
  • Crediton - Police station closure – provision of neighbourhood team base
  • Dawlish shop front - Lease surrender – relocation to Teignmouth
  • Holsworthy - Police station closure – provision of neighbourhood team or community base
  • Ilfracombe - Provision of replacement police station – tri-service opportunity
  • Redruth - Lease surrender – provision of community base
  • Seaton - Lease surrender – potential provision of community base
  • Torrington - Police station closure - provision of neighbourhood team base or a community base
  • Truro shop front - Lease surrender – partnership co-location and relocation to Truro station

2017-18

  • Exeter - Heavitree Road - Police station closure - provision of neighbourhood team base following south side development of Middlemoor and relocation of staff
  • Exmouth - Provision of replacement police station
  • Looe - Police station closure - provision of neighbourhood team base
  • Plymouth property store - Lease surrender and provision of new central store
  • St Ives - Police station closure – provision of community base
  • Wadebridge - Police station closure – provision of neighbourhood team base

2018-19

  • Bude - Police station closure – provision of neighbourhood team base
  • Helston - Police station closure – provision of neighbourhood team base
  • Okehampton - Police station closure – provision of neighbourhood team base

2019-20

  • Launceston - Police station closure – Provision of replacement police station (dependent on review of custody provision in Cornwall)
  • Ivybridge - Police station closure – Provision of replacement police station
  • Plympton - Police station closure – Provision of replacement police station

34 police stations and offices to close across Devon & Cornwall

34 police stations and offices are to close across Devon & Cornwall. Credit: ITV News West Country

34 police stations and offices across Devon & Cornwall are to close in the next five years as the Force strives to save £29m from its current budget.

The Police and Crime Commissioner Tony Hogg also warns there could be more cuts and job losses.

In most cases closures would lead to the building of smaller, more cost effective facilities, or see police teams sharing facilities within their communities. None of the sites being closed are currently open to the public.

The closures or lease surrenders would make revenue savings of at least £1.053m a year.

The PCC is currently preparing to launch a public consultation about how much people would be prepared to pay towards policing through their council tax.

Both the commissioner and chief constable are clear - given the choice they always prefer to spend money on police officers rather than bricks and mortar.

For some months we have been considering how best to reduce our estate, to reduce costs and create income whilst still maintaining an effective base for operational policing.

We had hoped to undertake local communications at each location before making this announcement but, as staff at certain locations are being informed of plans, it was fair and transparent to publish the full list.

The commissioner has spoken openly about plans to mitigate the next wave of Government cuts and how savings could be made.

Until recently the plans were based on us having to make £29m worth of savings but we are now expected to make an additional £25m savings – bringing the total to £54m.

This makes it unavoidable that we look once again at our estate.

We are comfortable that the plans announced today will have little impact on operational delivery but, if £54m cuts become a reality, I would expect this will mean closures of other sites and a significant reduction in the services that can be delivered.

We continue to strive to gain as much value out of our estate as possible. This includes our plans to develop unused real estate for sale or rental as opposed to disposing of sites to commercial developers.

We will look at many of the sites on this list to see if we can get a higher rate of return by developing them ourselves.

– Andrew White, chief executive for the PCC

As a Force we face challenging budget reductions set by the government and the subsequent need to reduce our workforce over the next four years.

It is only right that we review our estates and only keep those buildings that are not in need of significant modernisation and those needed to ensure we can continue to deliver a professional police service. We are planning for the future by dispensing with buildings which are costly in terms of maintenance while investing in newer and more efficient premises where needed. We are not removing ourselves from our communities, we are being more efficient and organised around where we base our people to ensure we continue to deliver the best service we can. Police officers and staff solve crime and keep our communities safe, not buildings. The vast majority of frontline officers already spend their time out in communities either responding to incidents or engaging with the public. Our police stations are primarily used as a base for officers to work where they can carry out administrative duties, receive briefings and access welfare and hygiene facilities.

– Chief Constable Shaun Sawyer, Devon & Cornwall Police
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