Windsor & Eton Express

‘No plans’ to shut Slough Police Station

Slough: Force has to save £13.4m over three years

- By David Lee davidl@baylismedi­a.co.uk @DavidLee_BM

Thames Valley Police has ‘no plans’ to shut Slough Police Station as part of its multi-million pound cost-cutting measures.

The force is looking to cut at least £13.4 million from its budget over the next three years.

Chief constable John Campbell met with Slough Borough Council’s overview and scrutiny committee on Wednesday to discuss the planned savings and recap on the police’s operations in Slough over the past year.

Councillor Dilbagh Parmar (Lab, Cippenham Meadows) said: “In the past you have sold a couple of police stations including Langley to save money.

“Can you please tell us that you are not going to do the same to save £13.4million over three years?”

Mr Campbell said the force has previously closed some police station front offices in the region

due to people reporting crimes by telephone or online, rather than visiting stations in person.

He added: “I will always want a really good footprint of locations within a town and I certainly have no plans to shut Slough Police Station at all.”

Thames Valley Police is bolstering its officer numbers by 183 as part of the first phase of the Government’s commitment to deploy 20,000 more officers on the streets over the next three years.

The meeting heard that Slough will get 22 extra officers as part of

this package but Mr Campbell said savings will still need to be made.

The chief constable also revealed 945 officers were assaulted in the Thames Valley between April 1 and October 25, a 103 per cent rise on the previous year.

In total, 80 of these assaults took place in Slough, with 20 of these COVID-19 related.

The force has also issued 862 fixed penalty notices for COVID-19 offences since the pandemic started, with 131 of these recorded in Slough, the highest for any local police area in the region.

LPA Commander

Gavin Wong told the meeting: “I don’t think this was because we were over zealous.

“Our community is so densely populated and it can be hard for people to conform some times.”

He added: “As a town I think we did pretty well in terms of adhering to the restrictio­ns.”

 ??  ?? Thames Valley Police Station, Windsor Road, Slough. Ref: 133156-1
Thames Valley Police Station, Windsor Road, Slough. Ref: 133156-1

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