Police commissioner spends £6.5 million on new building in Wellingborough for emergency services in Northamptonshire

Northamptonshire Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner Stephen Mold, has bought an office building in Wellingborough to be the business services hub for Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue Service and Northamptonshire Police.

The new building, on the Park Farm Industrial Estate, is part of a plan to modernise the police and fire estate with efficient buildings that are shared where possible and are affordable to run and maintain in the long term.

Purchasing the building also marks a major step forward in the collaboration between Northamptonshire Police and Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue Service: it will be the hub for a new joint team of business service departments including IT, Finance, Estates and Facilities and HR who will now work across both organisations.

Northamptonshire Police and Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue Service already share buildings in Rushden, Thrapston, at the Northern Accommodation Block in Kettering and at Mereway in Northampton. There are also joint police/fire teams including the Joint Operations Team and the Arson Task Force.

Stephen Mold, Northamptonshire Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner, said that he was excited by the possibilities that the new shared building will offer.

“Northamptonshire Police and Northamptonshire Fire & Rescue already collaborate in a number of ways because it is financially beneficial and it makes good business sense to do so,” Stephen Mold said. “I am confident that bringing teams together will encourage closer working right across the organisations and that can only be better for local people.

"By investing in this building we can bring together the services that keep both organisations running, share systems and processes and develop a joint culture that is focussed on working together to protect the people of this county.

“It also marks an important step in reshaping the estate with shared buildings that are modern, efficient and affordable into the future.”

The Park Farm building – which cost £6.5M to purchase – will now be remodelled and is expected to be open by next summer.

Nick Adderley, Chief Constable of Northamptonshire Police, said: “Our staff have risen to the challenge of Covid 19 and embraced new ways of working in support of our frontline response. Sharing business teams in the new building will embed these new working practices and add capacity to both organisations.

“I have no doubt that we are going to create a great environment that will improve the wellbeing of our people so that they can work together productively and effectively.”

Darren Dovey, Northamptonshire Fire & Rescue Service Chief Fire Officer said: “In the past 18 months, we have made enormous improvements in the service we provide and are creating a strong and effective organisation as can be seen from our response to the COVID19 pandemic. Closer collaboration with Northamptonshire Police will give us more capacity and resilience so that we can continue to transform our service and improve our performance even further.”