Pakenham CFA captain Vince Ingram, Cardinia Shire mayor Garry Runge, Western Port Province MP Geoff Hilton, Police and Emergency Services Minister Tim Holding, Gembrook MP Tammy Lobato, Acting Assistant Police Commissioner Mick Williams and Andrew Graham of Pakenham SES at the sodturning ceremony last week. By Paul Dunlop
THE first sod has been turned on an $11 million project that will deliver a new police and emergency services complex to Pakenham.
State Police and Emergency Services Minister Tim Holding last Thursday officially declared a start to work on an upgrade of local facilities that he and other officials acknowledged was desperately needed.
Mr Holding took time out from a week he’d probably rather forget with the flak over the police files affair, to join police, Country Fire Authority, State Emergency Service and Cardinia Shire officials at the site of the new complex, beside the BP service station on the western entrance to town.
Mr Holding said the complex, due for completion next year, would give police and emergency services personnel the working environment they deserved.
“People in and around Pakenham can rest assured that after this building is completed, local police and emergency services will be ready for anything,” Mr Holding said.
The complex will house a 24hour police station, fire station and CFA incident control centre for South Eastern Victoria as well as a new headquarters for the Pakenham SES unit.
“Police will be better able to continue the vital task of making Pakenham an even better place to live and raise a family,” Mr Holding said.
“And be it a bushfire, a house fire, a road accident or any other crisis, emergency services will be well placed to respond quickly and effectively.”
The new complex has been eagerly awaited by the people who will call it their home.
Current police and CFA facilities are up to 45 years old and provide no scope for the sort of expansion needed as Pakenham continues to grow.
The SES also operate in cramped, lessthansophisticated facilities.
Mr Holding said the new building would give the SES a firstclass headquarters.
“A headquarters that recognises the vital work this great organisation carries out,” he said.
As well as improved public areas, Mr Holding said the complex would have shared facilities that would benefit all of the local emergency services, including a Disaster Plan room and a multipurposes room for seminars, training and communications.
