Dorset Police wanted to future proof the Force’s estate and deliver fit-for-purpose facilities for officers, staff, volunteers and our communities, making sustainability an integral part of the vision, but also meeting the expectations of the communities who wanted to feel more connected to their police.
The project involved the delivery of a 30,000 sq ft three-storey ‘Grade A’ office building, laid out to encourage communication and cross-department collaboration. It has breakout spaces, a café and external landscaped areas for staff to decompress. The exterior incorporates a contemporary mixture of facing brickwork and glazed curtain walling. A new memorial garden, alongside a series of garden spaces for socialisation, education, retreat and outreach, emulating the surrounding heathland and incorporating locally significant species into new habitat as well as housing the site’s relocated war memorial.
Sustainability was a key driver of the brief with air source heat pumps and a collection of photovoltaic panels to harness solar energy for supplementary power generation included in the delivery. A comprehensive acoustic strategy was designed to address indoor ambient noise, reverberation control and sound insulation developed to support winning the sustainability standard of BREEAM ‘Very Good’. Willmott Dixon’s Energy Synergy™ technology is now monitoring the completed building’s operational energy usage to ensure it runs as designed.
The project demonstrated its commitment to environmental excellence through a circular approach to materials management. Instead of sending excavated soil to landfill—avoiding 210 lorry trips and 32 km of transport—the team followed a materials management plan under the CLAiRE DoWCoP. Nearly all of the material was reused locally to form two landscaped mounds on the nearby North Field, achieving 100% diversion from landfill. This approach also saved the project nearly £65,000.
This innovative blue light design creates a space that successfully blends sustainability with security and staff-wellbeing, developing a new model for future blue light buildings that allow the police force to develop a more agile and collaborative approach whilst helping them to meet existing and future demand.
The outdoor memorial garden not only promote increased wellbeing through breakout spaces and group seating, providing an area for people to get much needed time away from their desks, but it also supports increased biodiversity through 35 new trees, 25 shrubs and over 7000 plants.
The completed scheme was delivered with no interruption to service provision.
5 career events, 301 traineeship weeks, 79 Qualifications achieved, 123 Green skills training weeks
Zero RIDDORS
100% payment within 30 days terms
Soft landings for handover
Lawrence Weston Housing
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