Fears for the future of Ledbury police station (From Hereford Times)
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Fears for the future of Ledbury police station
9:23am Friday 7th September 2012 in Ledbury
Ledbury Police station could close under a property review being carried out between West Mercia Police and Warwickshire
Police.
The two forces are forming an alliance, and with services and property in the melting pot, rumours are growing in Ledbury that the decision has already been taken to shut the Worcester Road-based
station.
Former deputy town mayor Councillor Tony Bradford, declined to reveal his sources but said he had it “on good authority” that the police station will indeed close.
He said: “My view is, as a town, we are losing all our services. I’ve been saying this for 18 months and I have been heavily criticised for saying it.
“But how can we be a town without a police station, job centre, ambulance station and so on? I see the writing on the wall for Ledbury.”
The limited opening hours at the police station have led to much debate in recent months; but the idea that the station will close altogether is new.
And West Mercia Police declined to rule the closure out this week.
Toby Shergold, media communications officer at the force, said: “As far as police buildings are concerned, everything is being looked at. We have gone into an alliance with Warwickshire Police,
which will mean sharing a lot of services and facilities.”
Concerning the possible closure of Ledbury station, he said: “We are not ruling it in; we are not ruling it out. Nothing is confirmed at this stage.”
Ledbury’s mayor, Coun Phill Bettington said: “I would not like to see it shut,
and I would want to see why it has to close and where the services will go.”
Coun Bettington said he was also concerned about the future of the Ledbury ambulances and first responders, which are based at the police
station following the recent closure and sale of Ledbury ambulance station in Bye Street.
He said: “All these are questions that will need to be asked.
“I will try and fight the closure, if it is announced; but we can only do what we can.”
bobby47 says...
12:51pm Fri 7 Sep 12
Sadly for them and us, Warwickshire Constabulary has been thrust upon them and believe me they are completely broke.
Warwickshire are a 'dog', with fleas and these fleas bite. They are going to bite into our County and we are going to be asset stripped by this merger in order to support our Warwickshire partners.
All this talk of selling off property assets are simply to protect existing jobs and support Warwickshire Constabulary.
I say, lets ditch Warwickshire and their financial problems, cut some of the jobs that all Forces have created just for the sake of building up meaningless areas 'work' and keep Ledbury and other Stations open to the public.
People in Ledbury should have their own Police Station and I know for a fact that the entire building is used and made use of in a sensible way.