Basingstoke police station to close for asbestos removal

The police station in Basingstoke is to close after asbestos was discovered in the roof space, the Basingstoke Gazette has reported. Asbestos was first found at the London Road police station thirteen years ago, and it subsequently closed for 27 months whilst an extensive asbestos removal programme took place. In total, the rebuilding project cost around £3.5 million to complete. Despite this, the station will have to shut again after an asbestos survey conducted in June 2010 uncovered yet more of the cancer-causing material in the roof space of the building. Ensuring all of this is removed could mean that the station is shut for 14 months and that Hampshire Police Authority will have to pay £1 million for the project to be completed. Councillor Jacqui Rayment, who is the chair of the Hampshire Police Authority, confirmed that risk to officers is low as the asbestos is located in a part of the building which is not regularly used by staff. She also responded to criticism from the Taxpayers’ Alliance, which questioned why all of the asbestos had not been removed thirteen years ago. She said: “I have no comment to make about why it was not done in the first place. I do not know and I was not around at the time. “What I would say is that we have a duty of care for our officers and civilian staff, which is why we are looking at taking action.”

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