Topping out milestone for new police station to serve Cambridge region
A topping out ceremony was held at the new police station in Milton with Cambridgeshire’s Chief Constable, Nick Dean, and Police and Crime Commissioner Darryl Preston.
The event marked the halfway point in the construction project, with the building expected to open next spring.
Built on land purchased in April 2022 beside the Park & Ride site at Milton, the station is costing around £45m and will provide a base for more than 300 officers.
It effectively replaces the police station at Parkside in Cambridge, which was constructed in the 1960s and is beyond its functional age as a police facility, with an insufficient number of cells that are not of the standard expected in policing today. A police presence in the city will remain, however.
The impressive new-building being built by principal contractor Willmott Dixon will include enhanced facilities, 24 new prison cells – double the number at Parkside – and better road access, enabling officers to respond to calls more efficiently.
Following a tour for guests last Friday (9 May), the ground on the roof was symbolically ‘broken’ with a spade.
PCC Mr Preston told the Cambridge Independent: “Part of my role is to ensure that the chief constable has resources available to run an effective and efficient police service, so obviously this fantastic new building here in the south of Cambridgeshire is part of my responsibility.
“The chief constable said they need a new police station for operational requirements and operational needs and so we’re delivering.”
He added: “We’re about 50 per cent there and on course for opening early next year. It’s really taking shape.”
Contrasting it with Parkside, Mr Preston said: “This is a state-of-the-art, purpose-built police station.
“There’s a bit of office space in there, particularly for our detectives and other teams that won’t be out patrolling, but there are much better facilities for our visible police officers and our response teams.
“But to be clear, we’re going to still maintain a police station in Cambridge city, to ensure that the local policing team will be working out there.
“One of the main things as well is the provision of custody; at Parkside we’ve got 12 cells. Often they get full up and we’ve got police officers driving around the East of England.
“We’ve got 24 cells here, with the ability to expand, and they’re all modern, making it a much better working environment for the chief constable’s officers and staff, which is really important and obviously much better for detainees who have been brought into custody.”
Mr Preston said the extra space was beneficial.
“It’s difficult to attract particularly staff and police officers into the middle of Cambridge. There’s no parking there, and it sometimes takes longer to get in as well. So this a better working environment,” he said.
In his speech to those gathered for the topping out, Mr Preston noted that he had commented on the need for a larger station 30 years ago.
“It has taken a while,” he said, “but I’ve only been in this job for a few years and we’re here, so there you go. I made it my mission!”
The chief constable told the Cambridge Independent that “about 380 people” will be working at the new station – though “not all at once, of course, because of the shift rotation”.
He continued: “This provides us greater access to the A14 and other routes, whereas within the city centre obviously we respond out of the city centre, and the congestion and the traffic is not good.
“And equally for staff welfare and for staff travelling in to work, it’s quite problematic getting in and parking, so this will hopefully attract more officers and staff to become part of the southern policing unit.”
One major problem at Milton Park & Ride, especially in the summer, is the sound of drivers doing wheelspins in the car park in the evenings.
Having a police station next door should deter them, the chief constable noted.
“More importantly, this should provide reassurance that we are modernising Cambridgeshire Constabulary, we’re providing good facilities for our staff, but equally – and if not more importantly – it provides a good facility to police the communities of this county,” he said.