Essex Police Federation welfare van available to officers 24/7

22 February 2021

The Essex Police Federation welfare van aimed at keeping officers refreshed and with a place to rest out on the frontline is now available 24/7.

It means officers can have access to a toilet, hot drinks and food to keep them going during ongoing incidents and at times when they can’t leave their duties for a proper break.

The van was bought and kitted out by Essex Federation who cover all the running costs and chair Laura Heggie says it can bring some welcome respite to members.

“It’s now available 24/7 for the officers in Essex,” she said.

“It’s taken out by the Reps, although the force see the benefits we get no assistance from the force in relation to it.

“Now we’ve moved to paying an on-call allowance so that it can be available 24/7 because that’s where we were falling down.

“We recognise there was a number of times where it was asked for and we couldn’t fulfil that requirement, which was really disappointing for us, so we’ve addressed that and it is available now, 24/7.

Officers can call up the van themselves and it can be with them once the request has been authorised by an Inspector, Laura confirmed.

“Officers can get it just by calling up through their chain of command. It only has to be authorised by an inspector and then the control room will call us out.

“There’s a direct line for the van to be called straight to the rep who is sitting there, waiting. I know from a recent callout I did; the officers were so grateful for it because it was a freezing cold Sunday.

“It gave them access to the toilet; to hot drinks, some breakfast bars and even a slightly dodgy mince pie.

“It’s just a nice element that can take away the hardship of standing at the scene of a serious or a fatal road accident for six, eight hours, it’s a real relief. I’ve been there over the years and I know what it’s like, there’s also the health implications when someone doesn’t go when they need to.

“But If we don’t use it, then potentially we’re going to lose it, because we won’t be able to justify the costs.”