The new Heywood station will provide a modern building and up-to-date technology that will provide officers and support staff with the right facilities to carry out their jobs to the highest standard. The station will accommodate 61 police and civilian staff.

Equion will not only manage the construction but will also provide essential support services once the building is complete, including:

• Cleaning
• Building Maintenance
• Waste disposal
• Grounds maintenance

Chief Superintendent Ted Hill, Rochdale Divisional Commander, said:

“ This is really good news for Heywood and indicates our strong commitment to local patrolling officers to effectively tackle crime and disorder problems in the township. The old building with its courtroom on the first floor will bring back many fond memories for Heywood people but it belongs in the early part of the last century. Technology has a crucial role in modern policing and the new building is what we and the people of Heywood want.”

Richard Weston, Managing Director of Equion said:

“ Equion is proud to be working with the Greater Manchester Police Authority in the Heywood Township. Heywood Police station is the ninth new facility that we are providing to the GMPA and we are quietly confident that the new station will have a significant and positive impact on police services in the local community.“

The PFI project is part of the GMP's wider Estates Strategy programme to improve police facilities across the Force.

Notes to Editors

1. Illustrations are available

2. Heywood police station is part of a major PFI scheme to create 16 new police stations and a new traffic headquarters in the Greater Manchester area. Equion design, build, finance and operate the new facilities under a Public Finance Initiative (PFI) running for 25 years after which time the facilities revert to the Greater Manchester Police Authority.

3. The Net Present Value of the project is £99m

4. The police stations represent some 36,200 metres of new build facilities

5. Equion plc, a division of John Laing plc, is a specialist provider of facilities in the PFI and PPP markets with a long-term perspective and approach. Equion offers a combination of skills and experience, from planning and funding through to design, construction and operation. . Equion won the Infrastructure Journal PPP Developer of the Year Award in February 2003 for the second year running. http://www.equion.plc.uk/

6. Equion is currently working on 22 police facilities in the UK. In addition to these 16 new stations and the traffic headquarters in Greater Manchester, four stations are being built in South London (including borough police headquarters for Lewisham, Bromley & Sutton) and the Metropolitan Police Specialist Training Centre was opened at the beginning of 2003 in Gravesend, Kent.

7. John Laing plc, a publicly quoted company, holds a large and expanding portfolio of investments spanning transport (including 100% ownership of Chiltern Railways), health, education and special purpose government facilities. The majority of the investments are within the UK though a number are in continental Europe and Australia. http://www.laing.com/.