OPENING a new police academy in Gloucestershire is good news for so many reasons.

This week, it was announced a police training college will be created on part of the former nuclear power station site at Berkeley Green, after Gloucestershire Constabulary reached an agreement with the owner, the Nuclear Decommissioning Agency, for a 150-year lease at cost of £600,000.

This is fantastic for the county. Gloucestershire Constabulary will be able to train its own officers here rather than having to send them off elsewhere, which means recruits who live here no longer having to travel for training, and the trainees having more of a chance to get to know the area they will serve.

A purpose-built training facility run by our police force means teaching recruits exactly how the constabulary wishes.

There is also the economic benefit: the income and jobs associated with building the new facility will be kept within the county, and the recruits will be based here and thus spending their money in Gloucestershire rather than elsewhere.