Concerns for welfare of police and prisoners at town’s outdated custody suite

A TOWN’S police custody suite – where prisoners arrested locally are held – now has such health and safety problems that it features on South Yorkshire Police’s ‘strategic risk register’.

But it would cost up to £25m to replace both that and the College Road headquarters in Doncaster, and ‘legacy’ costs means it is financially out of reach.

South Yorkshire’s police and crime commissioner, Dr Alan Billings, has described the situation as “really quite concerning”.

Police say they have been working to “mitigate” the problems with the accommodation, which is now outdated, though the impact of that work is limited.

Nigel Hiller, the force’s director of finance, told a meeting of Dr Billings’s Public Accountability Board, which holds senior officers to account: “The risks are being mitigated. However, we cannot make a significant improvement building.”

There are concerns for the welfare of police staff in Doncaster, as well as detainees, as a result of the failings and police are now working to provide reassurance around “compliance issues”, that the buildings are fit to use. without a new

A new custody suite has been opened recently at Shepcote Lane in Sheffield, which takes prisoners from a large area of the county and the custody suite in Barnsley has also been upgraded.

Contractors provided an estimate of the cost of replacing the Doncaster station and custody suite, which would be between £20m and £25m, with the cost of a new site to be added to that sum. Replacing the custody suite alone would cost an estimated £15m.

Police chiefs also have competing demands for a new police headquarters in Rotherham, with no timescale yet available on when replacement accommodation may be found.

In the meantime, police are working to ensure they fully understand the risks involved and whether they can take steps to ensure they comply with regulations.