IT WAS with interest that I read the Police and Crime Commissioners comments in the July 4, edition of the SNJ.

To quote Mr Surl he said: “I am still committed to a strong Police presence in the centre of Stroud, which means a police station in the town.”

This comment was made in relation to the state of the current police station and previous magistrates’ court being in a far worse state of repair than he was led to believe.

Now, am I alone in thinking that he is preparing us – the citizens of Stroud – for the possible closure of the current police station in Parliament Street, Stroud?

The station may not be photogenic and it tends to dominate the Stroud skyline whilst some people would describe it as a ‘concrete carbuncle’.

However, it is a functioning police station with officers operating out of it for 24 hours a day, 365 days of the year and has done so for the last 40 years.

In recent years, there has been a tsunami of police station closures in this county – Cheltenham and Gloucester have both lost their Police Stations in Lansdown Road and Bearlands respectively – so is it now Stroud’s turn?

The police say that there is an ever increasing demand upon their resources from the public and I do not doubt that for a moment.

But what better way than to reduce this constant demand by limiting accessibility to the police by closing down accessible police stations and relocating to not so accessible locations and so reduce demand.

If the police station in Parliament Street were to close it would be a retrograde step as regards a police presence in Stroud and I would therefore urge everyone to make their opinions known as to what kind of police presence they want in Stroud.

Mr Surl did say he was committed to a strong police presence in the centre of Stroud – I will leave other readers to pass comment on that.

Now, if the station does have to relocate, how about to a building situated at the junction of Beeches Green, Slad Road and Merrywalks in Stroud.

This building has been refurbished over the years and even has the words ‘police station’ carved in stone above the main entrance - how ideal can that be!

There, job done!

Huw Niland

Stroud