Wiltshire Police re-opened their £1.8m refurbished Crime and Communications Centre yesterday afternoon.

Refurbishment of the former emergency communications centre, which includes a state-of-the-art new telephone system, started back in January and the modern, ergonomic design was unveiled for the first time.

Administrator Maxine Burry was chosen by staff who work in the building to have the honour of cutting the tape with Angus Macpherson, Wiltshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner.

Mr Macpherson said: “It’s about having a good response to public calls for assistance and having all our resources in one place.”

“It’ll be a good environment for the staff to deal with the pressure of the job and to deal effectively with the public.

“The success of the building will be reflected in our staff absence and health.”

Mr Macpherson invested £1.8m from his capital reserves into the refurbishment programme which now houses over 200 staff answering emergency 999 calls and 101 non-emergency calls.

Planning for the building was so meticulous, that as well as focus groups, staff tried out to scale cardboard mock ups of desks and office furniture in the police’s sports hall prior to the refurbishment to check the ergonomics would be suitable.

The new building, which is open 24 hours, seven days a week all year round, will expect to receive around 6,000 non-emergency calls a week and about 1,400 999 calls.

John Flynn, deputy head of contact management, said: “I’m ecstatic.

"It’s been a number of years in the planning and delivering and to see it all coming together now is a massive achievement for the force.”

“The public will probably see little difference because we will still handle 101 and 999 calls exactly the same way. What we will achieve is better response and training of our staff.”

As well as a newly refurbished inside, the building also has solar panels on the roof.

Despite the £90,000 price tag it is expected that they will, with today’s energy prices, pay for themselves in just seven years.