HEAD of the St James Police Division, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Vernon Ellis says work on Granville Police Station in St James should be completed by next year.

Ellis was addressing a question-and-answer segment during Sam Sharpe Teachers’ College Research Day, which was held on the campus in Granville, St James, on Wednesday.

He noted that the station, which was destroyed by fire in May 2021, will be a state-of-the-art, fit-for-purpose facility.

“You are going to see a state-of-the-art police station at the entrance in Granville, and based on the plans and the meetings that I have been attending and the persons who have been coming down [for meetings], I think within a year you should have that Granville location. I must say, it’s going to be a fine, multi-storey type of thing,” he said.

“We got a brand new station at Mount Salem two years ago, we have a brand new station at Adelphi, and then at Anchovy we’re constructing the second floor for a purpose-built station. Things are pretty much transforming now — we’re building them eco-friendly, we’re using solar energy,” he added.

Ellis said the scope of work on the facility will include the construction of a resource centre for students in and around the community of Granville, as requested by residents who attended a community meeting hosted by the Ministry of National Security.

“Persons requested that a resource centre be built on it [police station] so there could be a homework [centre] for kids, and so the architect and the other persons responsible, they have factored that into the plan,” he noted.

Ellis said that having the station rebuilt in the community will serve as reassurance and that persons will feel more comfortable as a result. The facility is set to be reconstructed at its previous site.