New Cosham Fire Station and Police Station.

The News, Portsmouth

On Wednesday 4 September Hampshire and Isle of Wight Fire and Rescue Service and Hampshire & Isle of Wight Constabulary will be hosting an event to celebrate the official opening of the new Cosham Fire Station and Police Station.

Transcript

00:00So Neil, it is the first day that the new fire station is opening, what are your thoughts

00:16on the new facility?

00:18Me and the team are incredibly thrilled with our new fire station here at Cochsham.

00:22It is a state of the art three storey fire station now with lots of modern environmental

00:27features including UV panels and the use of energy is very impressive in terms of efficiency.

00:35Also more importantly for the firefighters, it gives them a state of the art training

00:38facility to make sure we can protect our community even better and they will be protected themselves.

00:43It is important that we look after our firefighters so there are zones in this fire station that

00:47allow them to disrobe and move out of their dirty kit into clean kit and be safe in their

00:51working environment.

00:52It is not something we can do in every fire station yet but we are working really hard

00:55towards that.

00:56You mentioned training facilities and obviously there is a wide array of them so the firefighters

01:01obviously take on different exercises to make sure they are capable for whatever operation

01:05comes up.

01:06Yes, so here at Cochsham now we have state of the art training facilities and around

01:10us we have facilities for breathing apparatus training, so it is dark, there are holes in

01:15the floor which really re-enacts a real fire.

01:18Equally that chamber can be turned into a ship scenario because we are used to fighting

01:22fires and ships in this area around Portsmouth and so the teams really are equipped to make

01:27sure we train them for the things they actually face, including things like road traffic crashes,

01:31car fires, rescues from buildings and high buildings as well.

01:35Do you think the facilities will make the firefighters more efficient so they know,

01:39have an idea of what may occur if they go out on operation do you think?

01:43Hell yes, this is a big investment by the taxpayer so we are making sure we use money

01:46really well so one of the key benefits of this new fire station is the increased training

01:50facilities for our firefighters.

01:52Equally working with police here on the site as well so that idea of collaboration with

01:56our colleagues in the constabulary will make us more efficient, more beneficial to the

02:00community so we can keep them safe.

02:02How much money was put into the new fire station, is it a much needed upgrade for the Cochsham?

02:07So the Cochsham fire station down the road from where we are today was small, we'd outgrown

02:12it and we needed a bigger facility to make sure we could really provide our services

02:16so the investment of £16 million into this new site is really welcome and I'm grateful

02:21to the fire authority and in turn of course taxpayers have put money towards these sorts

02:24of sites.

02:25It's very, very important we keep investing in the Fire and Rescue Service as well as

02:28policing who share our site here today which means we're using public money really well

02:32and sharing sites where we can.

02:34Are the personnel using the new facilities here already, do you think they'll find it

02:38enjoyable working here and ready to get going?

02:40There's nothing that impresses firefighters more, with a new fire engine and a new fire

02:43station and they're very excited about being here.

02:45They will be absolutely excited about the future in this station and I know this will

02:49allow us to protect them which in turn will protect our communities.

02:53Well I am delighted to be here today with this new what we're calling a blue light hub

02:57which is where you have a fire station and a police station working together.

03:01So Hampshire and the Isle of Wight Fire and Rescue Service, Hampshire Constabulary both

03:05having their officers working here at this new site in Cochsham.

03:09As Police and Crime Commissioner three years ago I made a couple of promises to the public.

03:14I said that I would make sure the Chief Constable had the funding to recruit more police officers

03:19and he has recruited over 650 more police officers over the last three years.

03:24Secondly, I promised to open more police stations and to open up front counters where we could

03:29do to connect the public better to their police service.

03:32So this is just another example today of more police stations, more police working in localities

03:37to make communities safer.

03:39For more information visit www.fema.gov

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