Henry Brothers Midlands has won a contract to build a new £18.5 million joint headquarters for Nottinghamshire Police and Nottinghamshire Fire & Rescue Service. The three-storey facility will be constructed on land behind the existing Nottinghamshire Police headquarters at Sherwood Lodge and is scheduled to open by the end of 2021.

Work on the new building, which will include a control room, training centre, changing rooms, gym, canteen and shared offices, is expected to begin next month. Once complete it will form part of a wider joint campus that will also include all of the existing police headquarters.

After a competitive tendering process Nottingham-based Henry Brothers Midlands has been chosen to construct the new three-storey building. A formal contract was agreed on 29th June.

Since planning permission was granted in December 2019, a considerable amount of work has already taken place on this multi-phase project under the direction of construction consultancy Gleeds.

The site, which will include a new access road, additional car parking and improvements to existing facilities, has already been levelled and cleared – ahead of time and below budget.

Ian Taylor, Managing Director of Henry Brothers Midlands, said: “As a local company, we are delighted to have been appointed to build this new joint headquarters building for Nottinghamshire Police and Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service.”

The joint headquarters project is the next step in a series of collaboration projects between the two services, which already share premises at Highfields, West Bridgford and London Road fire stations, and at the new tri-service hub in Hucknall. The two organisations also jointly procure fuel, have a shared drone and incident welfare vehicle, and conduct joint safety and educational initiatives.

Chief Constable Craig Guildford said: “This is a significant day in the history of this project and also a good time to reflect on the huge amount of work that has taken place since we began preparing the ground once we got the planning decision at the back end of last year.”

Chair of the Fire Authority, Cllr Michael Payne, added: “This is fantastic news in what has, in recent months, undoubtedly been an extremely challenging time for our police and fire staff, the wider public sector and our communities across the whole of the city and county.

“The appointment of a local company to build our new joint headquarters reinforces our commitment to the people of Nottinghamshire, and I look forward to the next phase of the project where we will start to see the redevelopment of Sherwood Lodge taking shape, and the relationship between the two organisations going from strength to strength.”