General Discussion

I see the 'Police Station' in Brunswick Place has a sign in the window saying that this office has no public reception and access is by appointment only, also been informed that the Teignmouth Polce station has closed completely. Can anyone confirm this, so what was the point in spending £85000 in Dawlish as it is simply a very expensive restroom for a few Hobby Bobbies.

So it seems it is going to be more dificult to see a Policeman than a doctor.

I understand that if more’ mature citizens’ volunteer to become Special Constables (ie comfortably retired people), they will be able to staff the Dawlish front desk at the cop-shop.

Teignmouth Police station has not closed completely, the front desk isn't staffed (Dawlish never was), the ‘Operations Centre’ is now at Teignmouth Community College.

Teignbridge council opposed the change of use of the property in Teignmouth when the legal notices were published in the newspapers, as they were concerned that closing the exsiting Police Station would be the 'thin end of the wedge' to transfer policing from Teignmouth to Newton Abbot. The council had a meeting with the relevant Police authorities and specific opening hours were 'guaranteed' so the Council allowed the change of use to go ahead. Clearly the Council were right in the first place and were hoodwinked into allowing this.

If Dawlish only needed an 'office' then again I ask why was £85000 spent on this property, a luxury shower fitted and a new (large) central heating boiler fitted to run 6 radiators for an area of only 50 square metres. (for a part time office) BT also have run optical fibre cables specially for this office. So called community policing is an expensive joke.

I've been in Dawlish since March and haven't seen a policeman or Community Support Officer.

They do not seem to be Police anymore., as proven by the actual crime investigation figures reported in the local press only recently.

What they do seem to do extremely well however is collect stealth tax on behalf of the government agencies like DVLA , VOSA etc with the average motorist being the usual easy target.

One example of this is how the government enforced spending cuts mean fewer officers whilst the money saved is spent on more expensive cars fitted with the latest digital camera/video technology to detect drivers committing petty motoring offenses.

Its time that the electorate refused to pay the part of the council tax used to assist in Police funding until the constabularies receiving the funding refuse to assist these government agencies, Get rid of the 40,- 50,000 pound cars, and put bobbies on the beat able to address real crime and unsociable public behavior.