THE police custody suite in St Helens will close permanently, it has been confirmed.

The custody suite at St Helens Police Station has been out of use since August 2017 as part of an ongoing review into force facilities.

A spokesman for the Police and Crime Commissioner's office has today confirmed the custody suite will close for good.

"Due to a technical failure, the custody suite in St Helens has been closed for a number of months," the spokesman said.

“During that time, Merseyside Police has conducted a review of custody arrangements across the force.

"Due to factors including the prohibitive costs of repairs, capacity, and a requirement to improve efficiency, it has been recommended that St Helens custody suite be closed permanently.

"That recommendation has been accepted by the Police and Crime Commissioner and full details will be provided on her website in due course."

Cllr Lisa Preston, cabinet member for community safety, revealed this morning that a decision has been made to close the facility permanently.

Speaking at the council’s safer communities overview and scrutiny panel, Cllr Preston said she was informed of the decision by Chief Constable Andy Cooke.

She said the facility is not safe and requires significant investment to the suite’s IT facility.

“It’s now been finalised that the custody suite is officially closed,” she said.

“It’s going to cost in the region of £687,000 to fix the IT problem that is the problem in the custody suite.

"For the safety of the prisoners, this is needed.

“Andrew Cooke said it has to go, we don’t need it anymore.”

She said prisoners will be taken instead to the custody suite in Wirral and the facility in St Anne Street, Liverpool.

Local Policing Superintendent, Louise Harrison told the panel the Police and Crime Commissioner’s office has given “serious consideration” to closing the custody suite.

She said: “Unfortunately because of the IT issues that we had and of course because it wasn’t safe to accept prisoners there, a pilot was run to consider whether we could as a force reduce our custody suites and St Helens was used simply because of the nature of the situation.

“What we have to accept is that funding is an issue for us now and actually the demand on the force in terms of custody provision can be managed with one less custody suite.

"There’s been a lot of work behind the scenes in terms of analysing data and there is evidence to support that actually the force can manage pretty much with the three suites that we’ve got.

“Unfortunately, it just means that St Helens is the suite that, in terms of putting that investment back into it, doesn’t make financial sense to do.”

Labour councillor Andy Bowdon, ward member for Parr, blamed the Tory Government for the decision.

“This is a clear example of cuts having consequences," he said.

"I doubt we would be in this position if Merseyside Police had not faced such damaging cuts from central government.

“Government needs to wake up and understand that if it wants a proper functioning police service that reassures the community and tackles crime, then it needs the resources to do that."