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Police chief says closing Bath police station will stop cuts to frontline officers

Police chiefs have said they are choosing to close police stations, including the one in Bath, rather than reducing the numbers of frontline officers. 

Chief Supt Sarah Crew, from Avon and Somerset Police, spoke at a meeting at the Guildhall about the force's new policing model, which is designed to save money and make the service more efficient. 

She said that by selling off large buildings, including the station in Manvers Street, then the force would not have to lose neighbourhood officers and PCSOs. 

"As far as the public are concerned and what they should see and feel is a better service, not a reduced one," she said. "We do envisage making savings of just under £8 million, but these have been driven out by organising ourselves more efficiently. 

"We have made no reductions in neighbourhood policing, no reductions in the number of neighbourhood officers or PCSOs." 

Chief Supt Sarah Crew was speaking at a meeting of Bath and North East Somerset Council's economic and community development panel and answered questions about what the future model would look like. 

Councillor Andrew Furse (Lib Dem, Kingsmead) asked about the practicalities of where officers would be based and where patrol cars would be parked. 

He was told that the force was still looking at possible locations around the city, but there is an option for a front desk for members of the public at the council's One Stop Shop in Manvers Street. 

They are also looking at housing the patrol cars slightly out of the city centre and had been visiting potential sites along Lower Bristol Road. 

There is not yet an official timescale for when the stations closures, which also include Radstock and Keynsham, will take place. 

However, it is expected that Bath's Manvers Street station will shut by 2018. 

The new policing model will also include more officers on the beat during the busiest times, such as Friday and Saturday evenings. 

Avon and Somerset Police is currently in talks with the Police Federation, which represents rank-and-file officers, and Unison, the union for police staff, about these changes to working patterns.

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Police chief says closing Bath police station will stop cuts to frontline officers


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