23 October 2014 – 343.2014-15 – Costs to relocate Police Headquarters to South Kilvington
Request
With the proposed New Police Headquarters now being shelved, could you please inform me how much money had been spent in total on this project to date.
Response
Extent and Result of Searches
Searches were carried out within the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner (OPCC) and with the Northern Base project team. The information you have requested is held by both the OPCC and North Yorkshire Police.
Decision
To date, £611,662.21 has been spent on the Northern Base project.
The link below will take you to the Decision Notice published on the Commissioner’s website. The Decision Notice provides further detail about the decision to halt the plans to progress the Northern Base project as a result of emerging options. North Yorkshire Police had reached the point where they had gone as far as they should in preparatory stages and when the decision was taken to halt the project, only the work necessary to assess viability had been completed. The South Kilvington site was the preferred site for a number of months and prior to a planning application being submitted, work to assess the suitability of the site and the needs of North Yorkshire Police, was undertaken. The cost of completing this work should be balanced against the project budget of £26 million pounds, meaning that only 0.02% of the budget has been spent. At the stage it became clear that a saving of around £10 million could be achieved by pursuing the recommended alternative, the project was halted.
The Decision Notice is available here: