Police Officers and PCSOs are no longer booking on at Wilmslow Station, although there will still be staff working there and the opening hours of the station remain unchanged.
Starting from Monday, 14th March, staff working in Wilmslow book on at Macclesfield Police Station where they are briefed before travelling to Wilmslow to start their shift.
This latest change follows the reorganisation of Cheshire Police and how it polices local communities. This began in July and included replacing the nineteen Neighbourhood Policing Units with eight Local Policing Units.
A police spokesperson said "The benefits of Local Policing Units were identified in a pilot in Ellesmere Port. The new Local Policing Units bring together staff involved in responding to calls, neighbourhood problem solving, intelligence officers and investigators to start their shift together and be briefed across the teams simultaneously.
"The pilot showed by bringing together staff in this way produced major benefits as they were able to share their knowledge and maximise opportunities for working across teams, better supervision and leadership and ensured the right person was sent to deal with the crime or incident at the earliest opportunity. Bringing staff on in one place will also allow the organisation to make better choices concerning the use of resources such as the vehicle fleet to get more efficient use of patrol cars to get to where we are needed when we are needed quickly whilst maintaining a local visible presence with officers on foot patrol in their local community.
"Detailed work has been has been carried out to ensure the move to bring staff together at the beginning of the shift in this way adds value to their work and delivers more visible patrol time in communities. Time spent travelling between booking on stations and beats has been looked at, and whilst it will be kept under review, we are confident that it will not impact on the service we provide to the public."
Cheshire Constabulary leaders visited Macclesfield Police Station on Wednesday, 16th March, to see the improvements made to the station that has enabled response officers, beat and investigation teams to come together. The refurbishment supports the new Local Policing Unit structures allowing different specialisms to work from one nerve centre.
Chief Constable Simon Byrne and Cheshire Police & Crime Commissioner John Dwyer visited the Brunswick Street building to officially open the refurbished premises. Macclesfield Police Station was first opened in 1974.
Chief Constable Simon Byrne said: "A good working environment with access to the latest technology helps to make sure our staff are ready to provide an outstanding service. When the new Local Policing Units were introduced it was recognised that we needed to make sure staff had access to information where they need it and when they need it and that they share intelligence as a team to get the best results for victims.
"Our focus is on effective use of intelligence and working together across all disciplines to reduce crime."
Commissioner John Dwyer said: "It was great to see the work that has gone into remodelling the station to ensure it is fit for purpose for our new Local Policing Unit structure. Speaking to staff today it was encouraging to see how they are forging new links and sharing their knowledge so they can continue to be an outstanding team.
"I hope to see this enhance the one team focus of Macclesfield Local Policing Unit, which is supported by police community bases, police contact points and local police stations around the county. The Chief Constable and I are determined to ensure officers can remain in their communities once they have been fully briefed to bring offenders to justice. This will make Cheshire a hostile place for criminals and reduce the number of victims."
Comments
Here's what readers have had to say so far. Why not add your thoughts below.
- under utilised
- too large for current needs
- expensive to operate/maintain
- strategically not well placed to serve the region
- unnecessary and ineffective commensurate with current regional strategy and management; to wit the new Local Policing Unit based in Macclesfield (NB at least 10 miles away so quite handy in an emergency or even just local policing needs).
Thus Wilmslow Police Station (which is otherwise considered too small to be considered as a more regional asset) is now SURPLUS TO REQUIREMENTS (and deemed under what by then will be the most 'recent, 5 times revised Local Plan'!!) to be more suitable for development as a substantial/desirable private initiative town house complex with sylvan outlook over Little Lindow ( ….a 'small' portion of which, in line of course with 'current planning guidelines', will be included in the building footprint to provide adequate residential parking).
Come on Wilmslow, wake up and smell the coffee. It's not just the police - we're on the edge of CEC (which if you hadn't already noticed is localised around Sandbach/Crewe) and considered fair game for land grabbing and legalised asset stripping - oops, sorry that should read Local Development Plan.
1. Our Police Commissioner will soon be up for re-election - remember that at the polling booth!!
2. Local Council/Borough elections are also due, if you value your community forget about the main political parties, via the polling booth lets get majority local interest/Ratepayer representation into CEC before it's too late
3. Oppose now the general unfair distribution of (greenbelt) housing designated for this area of NW Cheshire - when it's gone it really is gone
The Custody Suite closed some years ago and arrested suspects have to be taken half-way across Cheshire to be locked up. The public counter is only open one and a half days per week. I wonder if someone could tell us what this facility will be used for in the future?
I have been trying to estimate how many houses could be built on this site; the "affordable housing for key workers" joke has worn a little thin at CEC but a minimum of 60 three-storey town houses with parking underneath could easily be accommodated.
If CEC also looked at closing the Ambulance and Fire Stations, double that and if our local CEC Councillors continued their assault on any green space in the town another 60 perhaps could be built on the little Lindow park and playground. Or perhaps they could build a school to house the hundreds of children from the hundreds of new houses destined for the Green Belt?
Of course this is all fantasy (especially the affordable housing bit) but five years ago who would have thought that our elected Councillors would have voted to remove the Green Belt protection from the... erm Green Belt separating us from Handforth, Alderley etc.
As a Homewatch Co-ordinator I am frankly baffled by this statement from "a police spokesperson":
"Detailed work has been has been carried out to ensure the move to bring staff together at the beginning of the shift in this way adds value to their work and delivers more visible patrol time in communities. Time spent travelling between booking on stations and beats has been looked at, and whilst it will be kept under review, we are confident that it will not impact on the service we provide to the public." Hundreds of man-hours per week must surely be involved in cops trekking backwards and forwards from Macc to Wilmslow!
When you re-read para.4 of the 'good news' release one wonders if Cheshire Police have discovered computers yet….ah ha, go to para. 9 and yes they have unless "…latest technology….." in copper speak is just a fatter notebook!
I'm not very clever but activities like booking-in (overtime….!) and briefings can all be done very effectively via a secure interwebsphere thingy, err that's computer based isn't it?
It's not rocket science but it is clear where this is going.
"Who dreams them up" poses John Featherstone. Well it's fundamentally managers and bean counters who just think they are policemen and know what the key task is all about…..
Remember, the way to get some sense from all this is to use the ballot box and vote for a Commissioner who will push the Chief Constable to get 'local' back into policing. I appreciate they have a tricky task and sometimes are between a rock and a hard place but it's us citizens they need to consider first and foremost and this just doesn't add up.
Wait a minute...
(I originally posted this on the AlderleyEdge.com site. Apologies for the repetition.)