Top police base set to open

The new station. Photo / Ben Fraser

Rotorua will have the best police station in New Zealand when it's officially opened on Monday.

The $18million building has used design touches suggested by Rotorua police officers, and those have been adopted by other police stations nationwide, Rotorua police area commander Inspector Bruce Horne said.

Mr Horne said the new building would be "the best police station in New Zealand".

Staff had suggested a new design to witness interview rooms and there would be informal meeting places for staff to interact with one another, including couches in hallways, he said.

The temporary police station in the former Spence's building was to close at 1pm today. All public inquiries after 1pm and until 12pm on Monday should be made to the custody centre in Pukuatua St.

The new police station is being officially blessed at 5.15am on Monday by several iwi representatives.

The southbound lane of Fenton St will be closed between 5am and 7am between Haupapa St and Pukuatua St. "It's not just a brand new building," Mr Horne said. "The old building wasn't just old but it was built for a different era and a different style of policing.This new building has been designed for our community policing philosophy which will enable police to give better service to the public.

"A lot of design features have come from our staff and some of these innovations have set a new benchmark for how we design and build police stations in New Zealand."

The police station as it was in the 1980s.

Further construction work would be done behind the station in the coming weeks as the temporary buildings were removed and the car parking area resealed. There would also be a dog garage and a car cleaning bay.

The Bay of Plenty Police District Headquarters will also move into the new building, the first time in at least 26 years the district staff will have been in the same offices as area staff.