New police 'hub' will be based at Leighton Buzzard's Bossard House and opens soon

The Police and Crime Commissioner Festus Festus Akinbusoye and Bedfordshire Police have confirmed to the LBO that the West Street building will be the new point of community contact, with the current location - a shared space with the fire service in Lake Street - having been criticised by many in the past for being 'too small'.

When pressed for extra details, Beds Police said it was unable to confirm any more about the hub’s operations at this stage, only that it would be releasing more information in due course.

Andrew Selous MP informed the LBO that its grand opening will be on September 30 at 1pm, with the politician delighted to be attending.

Mr Selous, MP for South West Bedfordshire, told the LBO: "A larger building is needed is absolutely needed. The current facilities are very, very cramped and not appropriate for the third largest town in Bedfordshire.

"Bossard House is a good central location, right in the middle of town, and I'm very grateful to Central Bedfordshire Council for making it available to the police.

"This is a welcome upgrade to their facilities."

In May, Leighton-Linslade Town Councillor, Steve Owen (Liberal Democrats), told the LBO that the Police and Crime Commissioner was “urgently seeking town centre premises” for a new police hub in Leighton Buzzard.

Meanwhile, it was revealed earlier this year that Bedfordshire Police now has the highest number of police officers in the county since 2002.

Reflecting, Mr Selous told the LBO: "We're coming up for a decade next month since the disastrous change to roster all officers in Bedford and Luton. It's had a devastating effect on Leighton Buzzard.

"Compare this to the late 1980s, when we had 34 or 38 officers based in the town.

"There has recently been a surge of horrendous vandalism and people are really fed up.

"I'm not exactly sure what the hub constitutes, so I am very keen and interested to see more details, and when we get a new Chief Constable at some point after September, I will be making an early appointment in his or her diary to make sure that we get a fair distribution of officers geographically across Bedfordshire."

Mr Selous told the LBO that he hoped the 'hub' would be able to accommodate more officers and cater for additional resources and IT equipment.

He concluded: "This is good news for the town and much needed."

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