Satellite Group - visit to CCTV centre Mereway

Visit to Police Control Centre, Wootton Hall

The Satellite Group, joined by members of the lunch time meeting, joined us for an evening visit.

For those who haven't been to Wootton Hall (the Headquarters of Northampton Police), it is a former and large imposing Edwardian house, now much extended to form the HQ.  It  is now surrounded by high security fencing and remote control entrance gates.  It had been agreed for our party to meet outside the gates to be escorted inside - so how Andrew and Clive managed to gain access and park inside before us baffled us!

Once all were inside we were met by Lynn Coppin, Service Recovery Office, who told us she normally shows groups of children around, so a group of Rotarians was therefore more of a challenge!  We were taken into a conference room and given a very informative talk about all aspects of the police - ranging from the community policing, 999/101 call service answering and the use of the helicopter to help with surveillance.

The group were then taken into the Telephone Control Room where a large number of staff work 12 hour shifts, supervised by an Inspector.  We were amazed by the calm tranquility of this control room and learnt about their normal responses, together with contingency measures that can be put in place to deal with out of the ordinary emergencies.

After the tour we all decamped to The Greyhound at Milton Malsor for a very enjoyable meal.

Peter Swallow