Melhuish and Saunders, principal building contractors, have achieved successful completion and handover of a newly-refurbished premises on the Haskins Retail Park site to create the new Shepton Mallet Police Station, which is now open for business.

This comes at a time when there will be increasing pressures on all our public services as a result of the coronavirus outbreak.

The police now have a much more visible presence on one of the main roads serving the town centre.

Work started last September and the premises were handed over in February. This follows on the back of two previous contracts completed on the site when Haskins decided to reconfigure the old Honda car showroom and then create retail units - now occupied by Subway, Greggs and Children's Hospice South West, which opened on February 14.

Avon and Somerset Constabulary then commissioned local builders, Melhuish and, Saunders (who moved from Shepton Mallet to Glastonbury approximately 10 years ago), to work with contract administrator and principal designer Ridge Partners LLP (Bristol) to undertake the new police station fitout.

Avon and Somerset Constabulary say they are very happy with the construction works and Ridge were equally positive – a spokesperson praised the local construction firm by saying: "Great team who were flexible, reactive and provided good value for money."

Melhuish and Saunders would like to wish all the keyworkers in our community well in these trying times and will be offering their support for as long as their business is able to continue and our movements unrestricted.

Needless to say Melhuish and Saunders are following all the official advice and are supported by the Building Safety Group in all health and safety matters to minimise risk to workers and customers alike.