Police answer Capel community queries about new station

There was less angst than anticipated at a well-attended community meeting about the proposed Capel Police Station on Thursday.

More than 65 members of the community attended the meeting a week after Police Minister Michelle Roberts announced the preferred location of the station on the corner of Spurr Street and Prowse Road.

Capel shire president Murray Scott said prior to the meeting he had expected there could be vocal members of the community against the proposal in attendance.

“Of course they were only Facebook warriors and they won’t turn up to front anyone,” he said.

“Everyone in attendance sat there and listened to what the three police officers had to say before raising concerns during question time.”

Cr Scott said there were some initial questions about why the proposed station would not be closer to the middle of the town.

“Some people thought it should have been closer to the centre of town but that idea fell over because they couldn’t get a block of land there,” he said.

“It is private land in the centre of town and a deal couldn’t be arranged with owners – the proposed block was sitting there as a reserve vested in the shire so that was about it.

“Once that was explained, everyone seemed quite happy and there wasn’t any angst there.

“There were also general questions about dollars, manning hours and how many police were going to be there.”

Building a police station in Capel was a commitment made by Collie-Preston MLA Mick Murray prior to the 2017 State election and later in the same year $8 million was allocated to the project.

Due to parliamentary commitments, Mr Murray was able to attend only the final 15 minutes of the meeting, but said many people congratulated him afterwards for honouring his commitment.

The Police Minister has said she expected the station to be completed by the middle of 2020, but a start date for work on site is yet to be confirmed.