Oldham MP voices ‘concerns’ over plans for new police station

An Oldham MP has voiced concerns over plans for a new police station, after it emerged the site would have no holding cells to keep suspected criminals.

Jim McMahon, who represents Oldham West, Chadderton & Royton, is demanding a ‘better outcome’ for a place where ‘so many people feel that justice has left town’.

He said: “Our borough has seen some of the most visible frontline cuts in Greater Manchester, impacting confidence in justice and policing and I am concerned that designing a downgraded police station will bake this in for decades to come, spending millions of taxpayers’ money in the process.” 

Oldham Council has been working with GMP to replace the station on Barn Street, which is reportedly ‘falling apart’. 

The custody area of the existing station is unusable because of health and safety concerns. Officers currently have to travel all the way to Tameside or further afield to book suspects.

MPs and councillors have campaigned for a new police station to rectify the situation for more than four years, and last month finally seemed to make some progress. 

But after a letter from Deputy Mayor of Greater Manchester Kate Green was discovered by the Local Democracy Reporting Service, it became clear there was ‘no immediate intention to locate a custody suite at Oldham’. 

Mr McMahon has reportedly written a letter to the Mayor Andy Burnham pushing for both a new police station with functioning police cells, and a new justice centre with court rooms. 

Oldham West and Royton candidate for Labour and Cooperative Party, Jim McMahon.

The local MP and Minister for Local Government said: “We have been campaigning for a new police station for years, having listened to officers and staff who work in Oldham over a long time, it is clear the building is long past its sell by date.

“With the closure of both the County Court and the Magistrates Court, and the closure of Royton Police Station, Failsworth Police Station, Chadderton Police Station and police posts at Limeside and Chadderton, and the impact of victim experience when reporting crimes, it is understandable why so many people feel that justice has left town.

“This is an opportunity to put that right – it is what local people deserve.” 

Oldham has one of the highest overall crime rates across Greater Manchester, with the second highest rate of violent and sexual offences, topped only by Manchester. 

Responding to Mr McMahon’s calls for holding cells, Greater Manchester’s Deputy Mayor Kate Green told the LDRS the new plans would be ‘future-proofed’ so that a custody suite could be added to the station at a later date if needed. 

Green said: “We’re all desperate to get a new police station in Oldham. One of the discussions we have to have is: what do we put inside it? Should we have custody suite?

“We have a spread of custody suites to minimise the travel time. We’re about to open a completely refurbished, state of the art custody suite in Longsight. That will increase capacity for all of Greater Manchester, and the processing there will be faster because of some of the new methodologies we’re using. 

“I can’t say today, with the custody suites that we have, whether we will need a custody suite in Oldham. But we do need to future-proof this new station, so that if it turns out we are going to need them, we don’t have to knock things down and rebuild. So we’re future-proofing the designs for the new police station so that custody suites can be built into the new station as and when they’re needed.”