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Police repayments cost £26m
A councillor has slammed the police's property policies after discovering that repayments on Wigan's two major stations will amount to more than £26m.
The headquarters in Robin Park Road and deployment centre at Bamfurlong were opened three years ago as part of a force-wide property shake-up by Greater Manchester Police Authority.
It was argued that it was much cheaper to open a handful of modern centres, coupled with small community police outposts in public buildings, than retain the old portfolio of ageing buildings which were expensive to maintain or refurbish.
But Bryn independent councillor Gary Wilkes today challenged both the sense and the economics of the revamp.
The Wigan and Bamfurlong properties were funded by a private finance initiative, an increasingly popular method of paying for large capital projects which involves the tenants – in this case the police – paying back the money over a period of years like a mortgage.
Coun Wilkes has requested details of the two borough projects under the Freedom of Information Act and was told that the police authority has to pay 944,000 a year for the Wigan headquarters and 100,000 for the Bamfurlong base to consortium Equions over 25 years.
He feels that this money – amounting to 26.1m – could have been much better spent. But the Police Authority hit back today, saying that getting the best value for money is one of its top priorities.
Coun Wilkes said: "The PFI payments are a combined amount of just over 1m a year, and this does not include running costs such as heating, lighting and maintenance: that would be an extra outlay.
"In real terms, 1m represents one per cent added to our council tax bill.
"Furthermore, we have gone from owning police stations in the heart of our communities to renting police stations that seem to lock our hard-working and valuable police away from the community they serve.
"Surely it would have been cheaper and more sensible to refurbish the existing police headquarters, which was close to the town centre and adjoining the court building, rather than shipping it out of town where it is harder to reach by public transport?
"I cannot also believe that all the other stations that closed – including Golborne, Ashton, Hindley and Spring View – were all in the same terrible and irreparable state."
But a spokesman for Greater Manchester Police Authority said: "We are committed to making sure that people get value for money and that was closely examined during the property review.
"Terms and conditions dictate how certain pots of money can be spent. The authority budget does not only cover staffing."
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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