Hope for police station

Townspeople have welcomed the possibility of Heathfield Police Station re-opening to the public as part of a reorganisation of policing in the East Downs division.

Chamber of Commerce working party member Mrs Carol Trimbee said anything giving the town a greater police presence would be welcome and parish council chairman Mr Tony Trick said the council would strongly support the police station being opened to the public again.

The Express reported last week on major changes aimed at developing stronger links between the police and the communities they serve and doubling the number of officers in the division.

Two areas were highlighted where Heathfield could benefit. One was the reopening of the police station and the other was a move of 24-hour emergency cover from Eastbourne to Hailsham which would give a quicker response time to calls in Heathfield.

A police spokesman elaborated on the ideas this week, stressing that while a decision had not yet been made about the reopening of the station to the public this was something divisional commander Supt Paul Pearce wanted to see.

The station, which closed to the public five years ago, was currently being used by scenes of crime officers and for other administrative functions. If reopened to the public it could be on a drop-in centre basis where at certain times members of the public could walk in and talk to somebody face to face.

Parish council chairman Mr Trick said the parish council had never wanted to see closure of the police station and would support any plans to reopen it.

He also welcomed an increase in the numbers of divisional officers but was anxious that Heathfield retained its known beat officers. 'What you could have is double the number of officers all based somewhere else,' he said, adding that moving response teams to Hail-sham 'had got to be an improvement'.

But Mrs Trimbee said ten miles was still a long way to travel and she would rather have the police presence in Heathfield itself. She believed the police wanted to give better cover and be more local and the best way to do that was to let people see them more.