Keep our Police station in Huddersfield town centre
If they invested in catering and built up a traditional pub menu, this place would be busy all summer and every Sunday.
ABOUT 10 years ago, when I was Vice Chair of West Yorkshire Police Authority, some senior police ranks in Wakefield came up with the idea of removing Huddersfield police station and building a new one in Tandem, a little-known area of south Huddersfield.
Like now, they said our police station was not ‘fit’ for today’s service and needed renewing. Some of these Wakefield folk even said it would be quicker to get officers from Tandem to Huddersfield than it was Huddersfield to Huddersfield!
What they really wanted was what senior staff of many large organisations want – to be far away from their customers.
It did not enter their minds that having a major police station in the middle of a town may give the feeling in the public that the town is valuable to the police service, that the public is respected – and, by the way, it is what the police service is for.
We know that the current station has a direct link to our magistrates court.
Yes, it is an ugly building. I know it well – it is no more pretty inside. But it is very functional.
Ten years ago I was successful in persuading the Wakefield folk that they should not consider taking away this visible sign of police commitment to the public.
The same arguments I heard then are being trotted out now. I didn’t believe them then and do not believe them now.
The fact is that senior folk in offices just like to be at a good distance from their customers, just to make life easier for themselves.
If they really need a new building, use the same site – it would only need a temporary home for the re-build. Or look at several other sites in the town. Or enjoin with our council to incorporate a new station into its development plan.
We’ve had enough of police removing themselves from other towns so NO, the Wakefield thinkers need to be told that our police should not be seen to abandon our major town of Huddersfield.
Putting coronavirus fatalities into context
DONALD Trump is applying the sledge hammer approach to crack a nut again.
To put these coronavirus numbers into context. Around 10,000 die of flu annually in the US, here the average is 600, by the end of this week 50 will have died on the roads but no one is interested in these statistics – they don’t sell papers.