POLICE estimate they will leave their Reading town centre base by summer 2022 as part of a major relocation plan.
Thames Valley Police will move to Atlantic House in Green Park, around 2.5 miles southwest of Reading town centre, after departing Reading Police Station on Castle Street.
Reading Borough Council announced they had failed in a bid to buy the current police station earlier this week once TVP moves out.
This prompted questions about TVP’s departure from the town centre from locals on social media, who questioned why the service was relocating.
Why on earth are the Police retreating to the extreme outskirts of town anyway? Won’t there be a town centre police station any more? Have they ‘lost’ the town?
— OIi (@RdgButler) June 8, 2021
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So, why are TVP moving to Green Park?
According to a spokesperson for the service, TVP has been looking for a replacement for Reading Police Station for “some time” (with a previous report suggesting police started looking for a move away in 2012).
This is because the existing building is in a “poor state of repair”.
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The Castle Street site, which was built in the early 1970s, is also “expensive to run” and “too large” for the service’s current requirements.
Why Green Park?
Atlantic House was purchased by TVP back in 2019, and the service originally hoped to move into the site in early 2021.
The TVP spokesperson said the three-storey Green Park site had been selected as it allows the service to “provide a modern, fit for purpose local police authority headquarters in Reading.”
When will TVP move?
The site has been specially fitted-out in refurbishment works which will suit officers’ needs, enabling the occupation of Atlantic House starting “early next year”.
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The intention, the spokesperson said, is for the building to be fully occupied by the force by the summer of 2022.
Does this mean TVP won’t have a town-centre base?
No, Thames Valley Police is still intending to have a presence in Reading town centre.
The local neighbourhood team will be based at the as-yet-unknown facility.
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Back in 2019, John Campbell, Chief Constable of the force, said: “Thames Valley Police will be looking to secure a visible town centre facility to include a front counter, town centre facing neighbourhood base and office facilities, to support policing of the busy town centre.”
TVP hopes to be able to confirm where the base will be located “shortly”, the spokesperson said.
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