Shropshire police 999 call centre should stay local’, say Star readers

In a Shropshire Star poll, 83 per cent said emergency contact with West Mercia Police will be better if there is a regional switchboard.

The online survey followed the news that force 'restructuring' will see the closure of its control room, in Battlefield, Shrewsbury, meaning that 999 calls will be answered by call handlers in Worcestershire instead after the launch of a new £23 million facility.

Shrewsbury MP Daniel Kawczynski has also said that he will be contacting Police and Crime Commissioner John Campion about the plan.

"Having listened to the poll to the Shropshire Star I will certainly be contacting the Police and Crime Commissioner to ask about the motives behind the move," Mr Kawczynski said.

Approximately 1,300 people took part in the poll with the overwhelming majority agreeing that it was important that 999 calls are answered in the county and that local knowledge was vital to the service.

While 17 per cent stated that communications technology made the location of the call centre irrelevant.

Local knowledge

Wrekin MP Mark Pritchard said: “I hope that retaining local knowledge will be fully considered before any final decisions are taken."

The changes are due to come into effect from April 1.

Only three of the operators based at Shrewsbury took up an offer to transfer to Hindlip, Worcestershire, and it is believed that another 12 members of staff have decided to take redundancy at Easter.

Around 18 staff will stay on to cover the shortfall until August.

The force is in the process of employing new staff. However they will be employed initially as call handlers and only when they have completed their training will they be able to become a dispatcher.

Worcestershire currently has two control rooms that cover Worcester, Kidderminster, Pershore, Evesham, Malvern, Droitwich, Bromsgrove and Redditch. But the north control room based in Worcester is set to close and there are fears concerns that the south Worcester control room will not have enough trained staff.

Mr Campion explained that £23.5m has been invested in the new state of the art shared operations and communications centre that is expected to provide an improved service for the public by improving technology, telecommunications and use of premises. Five divisional radio bays will also be managed by the Worcester Control room. Calls coming in to the control room are passed to geographic 'radio bays' where they are then allocated to officers on the beat.

Superintendent Emma Bastone, from West Mercia Police, said “Our two new purpose-built operations communications centres at Hindlip, Worcester and at Warwick Technology Park will bring major improvements in our ability to respond to incidents."

A consultation exercise is also under way.