Prisoners will no longer be taken into custody at Harwich police station after the cells permanently closed.

Instead, suspects will have to be taken on a 17-mile journey to Clacton to be booked in.

The six cells at the Harwich site in Main Road have been shut for the final time, despite pleas from officers.

The reasons for the closure centre around health and safety, with the cells at Harwich dating back as far as 1914, the year the station opened.

Published Friday, October 1, 2004

Brought to you by the Evening Gazette