Renewed calls to build Littlehampton blue light hub as combined base for emergency services

Dr James Walsh (Lib Dem, Littlehampton East) has long been an advocate of setting up a hub on East Street, bringing together ambulance, police and fire services.

The idea had been part of the council’s One Public Estate project, before being dropped as unviable – a situation not helped by SECAmb deciding to sell the ambulance station which made up part of the site.

During a scrutiny committee meeting earlier this month, Dr Walsh explained that the town’s fire station, which was built decades ago when the town was much smaller, was ‘in the wrong place and it’s too small’.

He called the East Street site, which also houses Littlehampton police station, ‘a perfect location for a blue light centre presented to us on a plate’.

Accusing the NHS and the police of ‘getting cold feet about taking the project further’, Dr Walsh said: “I really do ask officers and anyone else who has influence to knock heads together and get both the police and the NHS to pull their fingers out and make sure that this long-talked about [project] gets moving.”

The original plans would have also seen the co-location of health services at one site, but this idea was ‘scrapped’ last year.

And proposals of a new combined blue-light facility appear to take another blow as WSCC is planning to spend £1.1m refurbishing the Littlehampton County Offices, a three-storey property it owns and shares with Sussex Police.

This is because council staff are moving out of Centenary House in Worthing.

Some of the capacity will be provided by a move to rented accommodation at Durrington Bridge House on a five-year lease, with remaining staff based at Littlehampton in the refurbished offices.