IN Brief:
- Hertfordshire Constabulary’s new headquarters consolidates more than 500 officers and staff.
- The building is the first UK police facility designed to achieve WELL Platinum.
- Secure operational requirements have been combined with low carbon systems, welfare facilities, and flexible workspace.
Willmott Dixon has completed Hertfordshire Constabulary’s £56m headquarters in Welwyn Garden City, delivering the first UK police facility designed to achieve WELL Platinum certification.
The 9,000 sq m, four storey building replaces accommodation dating from the 1960s on the Constabulary’s Stanborough site and creates a secure base for more than 500 officers and staff. It was procured through the SCAPE Construction framework and is also targeting BREEAM Excellent.
Functions previously distributed across the estate have been brought together, including the Major Crime Unit, victim services, dog unit, senior leadership, and operational support. Custody and operational suites have been designed around national policing standards.
Secure vehicle access, holding areas, operational circulation, and controlled boundaries have been coordinated with flexible offices, conference and training rooms, quiet areas, a restaurant, gym, showers, and cycle facilities.
WELL Platinum places extensive emphasis on the relationship between a building and its occupants, covering air, water, light, movement, thermal comfort, sound, nourishment, and mental wellbeing. Applying those requirements within a police headquarters creates a brief extending well beyond ordinary workplace design.
The building must support continuous operations, protect sensitive information, separate secure and public areas, and maintain resilience during emergencies, while also providing a healthy and adaptable working environment for personnel operating irregular and demanding shifts.
Air source heat pumps and efficient heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems have been installed to reduce operational emissions. The reinforced concrete frame provides thermal mass and robustness, while the design includes infrastructure for future photovoltaic generation and a sustainable drainage system.
Willmott Dixon handed the project over on programme and within budget. The site also achieved a maximum Considerate Constructors Scheme score of 45 out of 45.
Public estates demand broader performance
More than £28m of social and economic value was generated through the project, twice the original target. The contractor spent more than £264,000 with social enterprises and supported employment, mentoring, work experience, and local procurement.
Willmott Dixon’s public sector workload is supported by a five year forward pipeline of £4.4bn, much of it secured through long term frameworks. Police, education, leisure, civic, and health projects now carry performance requirements extending far beyond capital cost and practical completion.
Clients increasingly expect projects to demonstrate operational energy performance, whole life cost, social value, building safety, digital information quality, accessibility, occupant wellbeing, and adaptability. Those requirements interact closely because weak commissioning can increase energy use, reduce comfort, and create maintenance problems at the same time.
Blue light estates add operational requirements that do not arise in conventional offices. Custody, evidence handling, communications, secure vehicle movements, response readiness, business continuity, and security zoning influence layout, structure, services, and external works from the beginning of design.
These facilities are also expected to remain operational for decades. Flexible layouts and sufficient building services capacity allow departments and working patterns to change without extensive structural alteration, reducing the risk that organisational changes prompt premature refurbishment.
WELL certification has become increasingly familiar in commercial workplaces, but its use across operational public buildings remains less common. Police personnel may work irregular hours and encounter sustained pressure, so daylight, acoustic control, thermal stability, movement, quiet space, and welfare provision can influence long term performance and retention.
The value of those measures depends on how the building is operated after handover. Air quality must be maintained, controls need to function correctly, water systems require management, and welfare spaces must remain available for their intended purpose.
Post occupancy evaluation will therefore form an important measure of success. Performance achieved during certification does not guarantee consistent results where maintenance regimes, staffing, equipment, room use, or operating hours change over time.
The use of reinforced concrete also reflects the balancing decisions faced by public clients. Embodied carbon must be considered alongside durability, thermal mass, security, fire performance, vibration, structural flexibility, and the operational resilience required from a police facility.
Willmott Dixon’s wider blue light portfolio includes police projects for West Yorkshire, Lancashire, Dorset, Humberside, Merseyside, Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire, Thames Valley, and South Wales, together with fire and rescue facilities.
That experience allows design and construction lessons to move between projects, although every estate has different operational arrangements, security requirements, and local constraints. Standardisation can improve cost and programme control, but only where it remains flexible enough to accommodate the service using the building.
Hertfordshire’s completed headquarters shows how wellbeing standards can be integrated into a secure operational estate without separating them from resilience, efficiency, and long term value. Its success will be determined through daily police operations, running costs, maintenance performance, workforce use, and the ease with which the building adapts as requirements change.
