New city police station set to open next year
A new police station will open in Bath next year – ten years after the city’s old station closed.
Work will start later this year to turn Plymouth House, a disused office block on Monmouth Street, into a centralised location for the city’s police force.
It is scheduled to open in 2025. Avon and Somerset Police and Crime Commissioner Mark Shelford, formerly a local councillor in Bath, said: “I’m very pleased to be able to announce this for Bath.
“It’s vital that policing is visible in all our communities and Bath as a key city in our region, which also attracts over six million visitors each year, needs to maintain a strong and robust local community policing team who are easily accessible to the public.
“This new station will provide reassurance to residents and businesses in the area as part of our commitment to delivering an efficient and effective police force for everyone in Avon and Somerset. I’m looking forward to its opening next year.”
Since the Manvers Street police station closed in 2015, Bath’s police have been based across two sites: Lewis House across the road from the old station – which they share with Bath and North East Somerset Council – and Redbridge House on the Lower Bristol Road.
But there have long been calls for the city to have a proper police station again.
In 2022, Lewis House was refurbished and reopened as Bath Police Station but now police from both sites will be relocated to Plymouth House.
Chief constable of Avon and Somerset Police, Sarah Crew, said: “This is a move our staff and our community have been asking for, and I’m delighted to be delivering it for them.
“The feedback we’ve received is that our teams work most effectively when they are together day to day and under one roof.
“Plymouth House will allow the Bath neighbourhood policing and response teams to work together and be joined by some of our specialist teams such as intel.
“We will also have opportunities at this new base for cross-agency working, which will include working with Bath and North East Somerset Council and the violence reduction units.
“I know that the community also want a visible policing presence in the heart of the city.
“Plymouth House will be designed sustainably, with quality facilities suitable for modern and future ways of working, and staff wellbeing at the core of the plans.”
Justifying the closure of the Manvers Street police station when speaking in 2018, then police and crime commissioner Sue Mountstevens argued: “It was far too big. We were only using several floors and it cost £200,000 a year to keep it maintained. By selling it, I was able to protect 140 police officers’ jobs.”