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May opens arson-hit gun training centre
Home Secretary Theresa May cut the ribbon at the new police firearms training centre which was torched by arsonists during its development.
In the largest of a string of arson attacks blamed on anarchists, the £16 million centre near the Avon & Somerset police headquarters in Portishead was burned down in August 2013.
The Home Secretary officially opened the Black Rock Specialist Training Centre on Thursday, more than a year later than it was due to be finished.
“As events in recent weeks have shown, when an operational need arises, specialist armed officers must be available for deployment,” she said.
The new centre trains officers in police firearms tactics through model semi-detached houses and an abseiling training area and 100m and 50m firing ranges with an interactive target system.
The centre was planned to be opened for 2014, but it was severely damaged in by an fire in 2013 started by what police called a “domestic extremism related” arson attack.
The attack was linked to dozens of other incidents of arson in Bristol for which anarchist groups either claimed responsibility or took the blame.
The centre has been informally open since the summer. “Today marks an exciting chapter, said police and crime commissioner Sue Mountstevens during the offical opening this week with May.