Mulligan announces cash for Nortallerton cells refurb, just days after axe falls on custody in Selby

Commissioner Julia Mulligan will spend the money bringing the ageing Northallerton Station up to scratch as she looks to create four centralised 'investigation hubs' throughout the county. The hubs are set to replace traditional local custody suites in a move she hopes will contribute towards the £16 million of annual savings she must find to balance the force's books.

Following budget cuts implemented on October 27th, arrests in the Selby area are no longer handled in town. Instead, officers are now forced to ferry detainees more than 12 miles to be processed and interrogated in the services’s larger station in Fulford.

Since 2011, cuts across the various public bodies serving Selby has seen a radical reduction of the town's capacity to handle itself on matters of crime and justice. No longer able to rely on a vast CCTV network to detect and deter crime, no longer able to hold those arrested on suspicion of crime and no longer able to try and sentence those found guilty of crime.

Selby appears to have had more Chief Inspectors than Leeds United have had managers in recent years

Today's announcement of cash for upgrades in Northallerton – with its population only marginally higher than that of Selby’s – will do nothing to allay fears amongst Selebians that services in our area face the 'thin end of the wedge' versus those in our county's administrative seat.

Speaking on Ms Mulligan’s announcement, Selby Councillor Steve Shaw-Wright told Selby Online, “It looks again like Selby gets short changed again. It would not surprise me if the Crime Commissioner proposes using South and West Yorkshire facilities as she has done for Craven where some detainees are taken across the border to Cumbria. The Hubs are just another word for centralisation of services, which affect Selby and Skipton the most.

“We have seen the loss of the cells and the sharing of the most senior Police officer the District has... and now even he has been transferred away from Selby. Selby appears to have had more Chief Inspectors than Leeds United have had managers in recent years and that’s far too many”

“As I have said before the local police service in Selby do a really good job with crime levels falling and community confidence in the police growing. This however, cannot be said for the Crime Commissioner who seems hell bent on marginalising Selby. Making cuts to services, refusing to properly fund local safety measures yet at the same time lavishing hundreds of thousands of pounds in the County Town of Northallerton”.

Defending the move, Commissioner Mulligan said, “A small investment in facilities at Northallerton comes after revising our estates strategy in light of the decision not to invest tens of millions in a new headquarters and operational police station at South Kilvington.  Instead, some updates do need to be made to the custody suite at Northallerton, but the investment is lower than was planned as there won’t now be a brand new custody suite.

“Visible, local policing is the clear priority for the public so the approximate £10m saved from not building in South Kilvington means I can plough money back into neighbourhood policing. Frontline services will always my priority over costly buildings, and that is no different in Selby, especially as I want to protect local services for the future whilst planning for tough financial times ahead.”

The main part of the Northalleton refurbishment programme is to take place next year and will will include improvements to the main station and work on the station’s custody facility to bring it into line with the most recent Home Office guidance. The initial work will cost £399,000 with an additional £100,000 ear-marked for further improvements over four years.