WESTERN BUREAU — Just over $1 million is being spent by the Ministry of National Security to carry out much needed repairs at the Falmouth police station in Trelawny.

Work began at the facility yesterday and is expected to last for two weeks.

According to the ministry’s project manager, Raymond Ramdatt, the work involves repairs to the guardroom, canteen, cellblocks and the roof. He added that the office complex is also slated to be repaired and will also get a fresh coat of painting during the refurbishing work.

Ramdatt also said that plans were also in place to have the policemen who live at the station’s barracks to take up residence at a building owned by the ministry, at Rock district.

Over the past few years, several civic groups and the police officers operating in Trelawny have complained about the poor state of the Falmouth station.

Early last year, superintendent in charge of the parish, Jasmine Tomlinson-Brown expressed her displeasure at the conditions under which her team had to work, citing the leaky roofs of the guardroom and barracks, as well as the sleeping quarters’ broken floorboards.

She said that the unsatisfactory conditions had sapped the morale of her officers.

Tomlinson-Brown told the Observer yesterday that she welcomed the repairs at the station and said that the refurbishing would enhance the performance of the policemen.

“The police here have been working under deplorable condition for a very long time and have performed well, despite the existing conditions. They have given more than 100 per cent,” the superintendent said.

But while some officers welcomed the refurbishing work, other policemen have expressed concern about the delay in the construction of a new police station for Falmouth.

Last October, then minister of national security and justice K D Knight broke ground for the construction of a new police station and court-house in Falmouth, which he said would cost just over $200 million.

At the groundbreaking, Knight said that the new station would provide a new comfort level for both police officers and those detained by the lawmen.

The Observer was, however, unable to get a start-up date for the project. A spokesman for the security ministry said, however, that present security minister, Peter Phillips, was “still committed” to the building of the new station.