South Yorkshire’s police and fire services have hailed the success of a new joint facility for collision repairs- less than six months after opening.

South Yorkshire Police and South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue worked together to develop the new building, which is next to Rotherham fire station in Eastwood.

Everything from paint jobs to high-tech diagnostic work and repairs get carried out at the workshops, with hundreds of vehicles from across both organisations’ fleets passing through the facility each year.

The move also helped to create a new central stores facility for the fire service, creating a better place to store, secure and administer equipment for frontline firefighters.

Head of joint vehicle fleet management Sarah Gilding, said: “Our workshop mechanics are instrumental in keeping operational vehicles ready to respond to emergencies, so it’s only right that they now have a light, bright, modern facility in which to carry out their work.

“A new spray booth means we can achieve a better quality finish on our vehicles, whilst technicians have the very latest equipment available to help them diagnose faults. The workshop staff from each organisation also now work really well together- sharing experiences and learning on the huge variety of vehicles they work on- from HGVs to bicycles.”

The two services brought their vehicle fleets under a shared management structure in 2018. The following year they were named fleet of the year at a major national industry awards.

The Policing & Crime Act 2017 placed a new statutory duty on all three emergency services to look at opportunities to work with one another better to improve efficiency and effectiveness.

In South Yorkshire, the police and fire and rescue services have already built a joint police and fire station in Maltby, formed a shared community safety department and developed more than 50 other areas of joint working.