West Yorkshire Police Try Turnkey Approach With New Vauxhalls

LUTON, UNITED KINGDOM, April 15, 2009: A turnkey arrangement through which fully prepared police vehicles are supplied by Vauxhall is being used by West Yorkshire Police Force to acquire new Astra beat cars.

The first of 27 Astra models currently on order were delivered early in 2009 from the GM UK Special Vehicles Centre at Millbrook in Bedfordshire. They were supplied complete with Battenberg livery, a siren, GM’s own design of LED flashing lightbar and wiring and aerial for the radio equipment.

That left just a few finishing touches to be carried out by the Force’s own workshop, including fitting the radio and number plates and applying security film to the windows before the cars went into service.

Steve Thompson, Head of Transport for West Yorkshire Police, said: “Previously we’ve carried out all this fitting-out and finishing ourselves. However, pressure on our workshops, along with a decision to adopt the Battenberg striping in place of our own Force livery, made the GM UK Special Vehicles turnkey approach an attractive proposition. I’m impressed with the quality of the work done at Millbrook, with everything well placed and secured in the vehicle.”

Maintenance and repair of the Astra vehicles will be undertaken at the large and well-equipped Force workshop in Wakefield, which is fully approved by Vauxhall to carry out warranty work on its products. The Astras are covered by a three year warranty, during which time they will cover up to 100,000 miles. The warranty also extends to all the equipment fitted at Millbrook.

All the Astras on order are hatchbacks with 1.3 CDTi engines. They join a fleet of some 1,200 vehicles of which 70 per cent are from the Vauxhall stable. The model is one of two listed within the Police National Framework for the beat car role.

Opened in 2007, the GM UK Special Vehicles centre converts standard production models to meet a wide range of emergency vehicle needs, for Police and Fire services. Well over 4,000 vehicles have been converted at the centre ranging from Astra beat cars to Vectra high speed pursuit cars and GM UK Special Vehicles will shortly be launching their range of Emergency Services Insignia models.