Exact date when abandoned Dovercourt house to be demolished for new police station
Demolition of the former fire station commander's home in Dovercourt will soon get underway. Essex Police have said work on the former house in Fronks Road will start later this month.
The demolition is in preparation for a new two-storey police station to be built later this year. Plans for the new station were approved in October 2023 but the station will be an operational base with no public front counter.
There are public-accessible stations based in Clacton-on-Sea and Colchester. Essex Police say officers and staff are long overdue a police station that matches the demands of policing activity in the 21st century.
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Demolition work will commence from January 27. Deputy Chief Constable Rachel Nolan said: "Harwich Police Station was built in 1914, so our officers and staff working there are due a fit for purpose police station which meets the needs of the 21st century and which will be much more cost effective in the long term.
"Thanks to our teams and partners, crime has fallen by 8.2 per cent and anti-social behaviour by 10 per cent in the latest year-on-year figures for Harwich. The new police station situated on the same site as Essex County Fire and Rescue Service means we can continue to work closer together to keep our communities safe and drive down crime."
Chief Inspector Ella Latham, District Commander for Tendring, previously said: "The new police station at Dovercourt will create a modern, fit for purpose emergency services facility for our teams in Harwich. The most important thing for our communities to know is that our policing presence in Harwich and Dovercourt won’t change."
Karl Edwards, Director of Corporate Services at Essex County Fire and Rescue Service, said: "This project marks an exciting milestone as we continue collaborative working between Essex County Fire and Rescue Service and Essex Police. It will be our Service’s first collaborative site with Essex Police, providing a modern and efficient base for police officers while fostering stronger working relationships between our teams. By working more closely together, we can enhance our efforts to keep communities safe and deliver the best possible service to the public."
Roger Hirst, Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner for Essex, said: “I’m very pleased work on a new Essex Police base in Harwich is underway, on the same site as an Essex County Fire and Rescue Service station. It’s taken a lot of hard work from all partners to get to this crucial point which encapsulates closer future collaboration between both services and long-term investment, working together to drive improvement and create safe, secure communities."