South Wales Police and Crime Commissioner Alun Michael has defended a decision to buy three garden-style cabins as training rooms for police officers.
The cabins - or pods - are normally to be seen in middle-class suburban gardens, where they provide homeowners with a comfortable place to relax during the summer. But the three units - bought at a cost of £14,000 each - will instead be used as the location for “inspirational” courses given to police officers at a new training centre built on the site of demolished police houses in the grounds of force headquarters at Bridgend.
Not everyone who has heard about the purchase of the pods is impressed, with critical comments having appeared on social media. One message, on a Facebook site for retired South Wales Police officers called Blueprint, states: “It appears that South Wales Police have purchased a number of these ‘relaxation pods’ for staff at HQ. They are £14,000 each. Wonder whose bright idea this was, and yet front line complain of a lack of equipment. There are three of them and Mr Alun Michael was insistent on them being purchased.”
