A detailed planning application has been submitted to South Gloucestershire Council for a new custody centre and police station on the former Bensons site on Gloucester Road, Patchway.
The custody centre, one of three centralised units across the Avon and Somerset Police area, will house 48 cells and serve Bristol, South Gloucestershire and parts of North Somerset.
The new police station, replacing the one at Elm Park, Filton, will contain an enquiry office for members of the public and will serve the communities of Filton, Patchway, Bradley Stoke, Little Stoke, Stoke Gifford, Frenchay, Winterbourne, Severn Beach, Almondsbury, Easter Compton and Hambrook.
A specialist crime investigation unit will also be located at the complex.
Outline planning permission for a two-storey custody centre (approx 3,000sqm of floor space) and a two-storey police station (approx 1,000sqm floor space) was obtained from South Gloucestershire Council in September 2010.
The latest plans show the two functions merged into a single two-story building providing 5,970sqm of gross internal floor space, with the custody centre occupying around two-thirds of the building.
According to the transport statement submitted with the application, the development will employ 303 people in total, working in shifts to provide 24 hour cover. The statement adds that a maximum of 164 staff are anticipated to be on site during any given day.
The site will provide 138 parking spaces for staff, operational use and visitors, together with 40 secure cycling parking spaces.
Two new vehicular access points are proposed off Gloucester Road as part of the development proposals for the site. The main access will be a ‘left in, left out’ priority junction at the northern end of the site. To enable access from the south and west, a secondary access will be provided at the signalised gyratory of Gloucester Road and Hayes Way. All vehicles wishing to egress the site will do so via the primary access.
Fencing with a height in the region of 3 to 3.6 metres will be used to secure parts of the site, justified by “the security implications of a police use” but this will be designed from high quality mesh fencing and be incorporated within softening landscape treatments, according to a covering letter from the applicant’s agent.
Miller Construction, part of the PFI consortium chosen to build and manage the development, says it anticipates being able to commence construction in this summer, with the building being operational from 2014.
Photo: Site of the proposed police complex on Gloucester Road.
