Reports that the number of staff in the Incident Response Team based at Driffield Police Station are to reduce have been slammed by a senior force member.
Superintendent Bowes of Humberside Police said the rumour the majority of the team were to be relocated was untrue and reassured the public that no changes are planned for Driffield Police Station.
Despite this reassurance recent fears over the future of the station have led to Driffield town councillors voicing their support of retaining the police service in the town.
Coun Paul Rounding said: “The Town Council are very concerned that whilst rather vague assurances have been made with regard to the continued provision of a police station somewhere in the town, that it is not the building that is important, but rather the number of officers based from there. It is imperative that the Incident Response Team remains based in Driffield, in order to maintain adequate response times but also to ensure that we have a police presence other than the Neighbourhood Policing Team.
“We doubt very much if the Team was relocated to, say Bridlington, that they would only come to the town in response to an incident. It is worth considering how long it would take to respond if anything happened in the further reaches of our policing area if the team were relocated to another station.
“If the Police are assuring us that the Incident Response Team will remain based in Driffield then that is great, however, we will maintain pressure on the Commissioner and his team that this should remain so.”
Coun Joyce Fletcher said: “I think people feel safer when they see the police around, a lot of people knowing where the police station is.”