On Thursday 31st July 2008 the Dalston Police Post was officially opened by a group of community representatives and officers from Cumbria Police.

Over 60% of respondents to the Dalston Parish Plan asked for some sort of permanent representation by Cumbria Police in Dalston Village. This was taken up as a project by Inspector David Coates who recognised that running the Caldew Group from Brampton was very inefficient. Even if a post which was not fully open to the public could be establised in Dalston, lots of staff time and mileage could be saved. He fought a long campaign, finally triumphing in 2008, both with the appointment of a Police Community Support Officer and an agreement with the Head and Governors of St Michael's Primary School to lease some rooms in the school to be used as the Dalston Police Post.

Dalston Parish Council were involved with Insp. Coates from an early stage and were delighted to advance community funding, a sum sufficient to pay for about half of the refurbishment of the rooms.

Nestle were also asked to help with providing car parking for police vehicles and they were represented at the opening by Emma Crunkhorn, PR Manager for Nestle in Dalston.

Local crime figures are down by about 40% and much of this is due to the more obvious presence in and around the Parish by Colin Hird, our Community PC, and PCSO Emma Tonge.

The establishment of the Police Post will result in lots of police comings and goings in Dalston which is bound to act as a deterrent to would-be wrong-doers.

Steven Fraser said that with the presence of police officers in the school young children were getting the opportunity to get to know the police and, hopefully, when they moved into their teens they would look on the police in a different light.

Emma is determined to take every opportunity to bridge the gap between the local community and the police. She will be holding a number of pop-in sessions, either in the new Police Post, Church House or elsewhere in the Parish. These are designed to give people the opportunity to have a chat with their local police representative.

The Parish Council are delighted that this request in the Parish Plan has been fulfilled, and that once more Cumbria Police are represented in Dalston. This is a good example of local precept money being put to an excellent use for the benefit of the whole community.

Because the community base is housed within the school grounds, it will not be open to the public as a drop-in centre, but the officers based in Dalston can be contacted by phone on 0845 33 00 247 to arrange a meeting or discuss an issue.