Calls for Portsmouth Central police station to re-open its public desk

At a full council meeting next week Councillor Hugh Mason is due to ask his peers to lobby the Hampshire police and crime commissioner Michael Lane.

Cllr Mason wants to either reopen the public counter at the police station in Winston Churchill Avenue or open one nearby.

It comes after the counter closed last year, along with the station's cells, when the new police investigation centre off Airport Service Road in Copnor opened.

Cllr Mason believed even opening the desk for a few hours a day would improve the situation.

He said: ‘There are certain things for which people need to physically report to the police centre.

‘They can't do it by telephone because they have to provide documents. Or sometimes they are in a situation where they don't want someone to be able to trace that they have gone to the police.

‘The police station on Airport Service Road is about as far from any bus stop or train station from anywhere in Portsmouth except perhaps being on the south of the Farlington Marshes.

‘I am asking for there to be a location where people can contact the police even if it is during restricted hours.

‘The station at Winston Churchill Avenue used to provide that and people could get there by bus or train.’

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As previously reported, it had been planned the central station would close entirely. However, with the announcement that Hampshire Constabulary is due to recruit 156 extra officers this is now under review.

A spokeswoman for the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner confirmed this was still the case. She said: ‘Portsmouth Central still currently has an operational policing presence as the estates team working alongside the constabulary go through the ramifications of the police estate in Portsmouth and the wider area.

‘The estates team and the constabulary are exploring options for the current teams based at Portsmouth Central, taking into account what we’ve learnt from Covid-19 and looking ahead to the officer uplift; and all of this is framed by the overarching policing priorities.

‘The constabulary make decisions about front counters as part of their contact management programme.’

Councillor will consider Cllr Mason's proposals at a virtual meeting on July 21.

Police stations in Fratton and Southsea have already closed.

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