Plans for the three-storey operational support building at developer Wykeland Group’s Melton West business park, west of Hull, have been submitted to East Riding of Yorkshire Council. If approved, Willmott Dixon is expected to start construction in the third quarter of 2020.
The Humberside Police Force development, called Melton 2, will provide 107,000 square foot of accommodation for around 535 staff from the force’s Operational Support Services and is sited next to an existing facility built in 2014, Melton 1, which is home to specialist teams and support staff.
Procured via Major Works England and Northern Ireland, a part of the Scape National Construction framework, Willmott Dixon is working with architect Bond Bryan to take the plans through planning and into construction.
Humberside Police & Crime Commissioner Keith Hunter said: “The new development at Melton will, if approved, allow Humberside Police to bring together a number of specialist crime investigation functions, some of which deal with the most serious crimes and vulnerable victims, and provide a new, state of the art force control room which will continue the great progress made in public contact over the last few years.”
The project is in line with a national trend by police forces to bring together different functions and services under one roof in new office space. For Willmott Dixon, it is a sector that has provided a lot of business, with blue light schemes worth nearly £200m in the last three years.
Willmott Dixon’s work include the 36-cell Birchin Way Custody Suite in Grimsby, 42-cell West Division Police HQ in Blackpool, 40-cell Exeter Police Station, 50-cell Sheffield Custody Suite and the Lincolnshire Blue Light Campus, which brings together Lincolnshire’s fire and rescue services, police force and ambulance service under one roof. The company also built a new home for North West Ambulance Service and Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service in Wigan.
In September 2019 it was appointed by Merseyside Police Force to create four storeys of office space for up to 1,175 people. It also has a contract with West Midlands Police for a new control suite.
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