'No decision yet on police station' (From Ledbury Reporter)

'No decision yet on police station'

9:40am Tuesday 9th October 2012 in News

A WOULD-BE police commissioner has guaranteed no decisions have been taken on the future of Ledbury Police Station.

Dr Simon Murphy, Labour candidate for police and crime commissioner, says that if elected on November 15 he will be seeking ways to open police stations for longer, not close them.

He said: “I can promise the people of Ledbury no decision has been taken to close the station.”

It follows speculation on the long-term future of the station.

“Ensuring that Ledbury and other such towns in Herefordshire and Worcestershire continue to have police stations will be one of my top priorities if I am elected as police and crime commissioner,”

said Dr Murphy.

“Thanks to David Cameron’s 20 per cent cuts to police budgets, local police stations are open for fewer hours. Ledbury police station is now open for 15 hours a week less than it was at the beginning of the year.”

West Mercia Police have not ruled out a closure of Ledbury, as talks continue with neighbouring force Warwickshire Police on ways to save money.

West Mercia have previously said regarding the closure: “We are not ruling it in, we are not ruling it out. Nothing is confirmed at this stage." Adrian Blackshaw is the Conservative candidate for the commissioner’s post, and Bill Longmore stands as an independent.

Mr Blackshaw said: “One of my aims over the next few weeks is to take the politics out of this completely, it really is not about politics. I’ll be seeking the best possible police service, and fighting for that.”

Mr Longmore said: “I’ll be going down to Ledbury myself over the next few days. I would take some convincing on any closure – I’ll be fighting to keep it open. Nobody can make any promises but I see stations as very important and Ledbury is a fairly big place.”