NORFOLK and Suffolk Police have taken a major step forward in their bid to build a new police investigation centre (PIC) in Great Yarmouth. Plans have now been submitted to Yarmouth Borough Council for the new centre on Thamesfield Way, Yarmouth Business Park.

NORFOLK and Suffolk Police have taken a major step forward in their bid to build a new police investigation centre (PIC) in Great Yarmouth.

Plans have now been submitted to Yarmouth Borough Council for the new centre on Thamesfield Way, Yarmouth Business Park.

The centre, one of six proposed in Norfolk and Suffolk, will house police, support staff and a new custody suite.

If planning permission is approved the PIC, on land near B&Q, will be operational in the second half of 2011.

Other centres are also planned at Martlesham Heath, Wymondham, Aylsham, Kings Lynn, and Bury St Edmunds, and the construction of these centres will be phased.

Chief inspector Roger Wiltshire said: “The Police Investigation Centres will help us meet the requirements and needs of modern policing in Norfolk and Suffolk. As part of that process we will be looking at our working practices ensuring we put people are at the heart of everything we do.

“The centres will accommodate police officers, police staff and investigators. Suspects will also be held there in custody for questioning. The new investigation centres will have top-of-the-range modern facilities and will be among the most up-to-date in the country.”

Building designs have been approved by the Home Office and final contracts in the private finance initiative are expected to be completed in November.

It is the first major collaboration between Norfolk and Suffolk police after they agreed to look at ways they could work more closely together when the Home Office's proposed force merger collapsed more than two years ago.

The forces established a joint major investigation team covering both counties in April this year.

The construction will be carried out by Kier Construction, which has a base in Norwich.