I TOTALLY agree with Dr John Redman (HAS, Nov 24) about the cost of a proposed Central Custody Suite in Spennymoor taking 52 years to recoup the cost. I would suggest that whoever’s bright idea it is should go back to school for a refresher in maths.

Apart from the cost, which would be better spent on extra police officers, I can remember a police officer in Northumbria being killed whilst transporting a prisoner from Hexham to the central custody in Newcastle not long after Hexham’s custody suite was no longer a holding facility.

The police are obsessed with centralisation. Their argument is it is a more efficient system. What a load of codswallop. When the communications system was centralised to Aykley Heads and small police offices were closed or were opened at totally unsuitable hours, Durham Constabulary lost a lot of goodwill from the public because the police either could not be contacted or their reports, unless of a serious nature, were put on the back burner.

While on the subject, can anyone tell me the advantage of having Police, Crime and Victims’ Commissioners. What was wrong with the old system of a police authority. Was it inefficient?

As far as I am aware, police authorities didn’t impact on the police budget whereas the new system does. Not only does the Commissioner get a salary but they have a number of salaried staff.

It would be interesting to see how many extra officers could be employed without this ‘quango’, for want of a better word.

Thomas Ball, Barnard Castle.