TWO of the region's chief constables launched building work on a new £6m police firearms training centre yesterday.

Cleveland and County Durham police authorities are the first in the country to enter a private/public finance partnership to build a weapons training centre.

Cleveland and Durham chief constables Barry Shaw and George Hedges helped cut the first turf of the centre's foundations at Eaglescliffe, Stockton-on-Tees.

As firearms offences rise in parts of the region, police are concentrating on improving their weapons training and the Urlay Nook Road centre will provide the most modern training and services available.

The partnership with Barr Holdings Ltd is set to save the police authorities millions of pounds under the Government-approved private finance initiative.

Barr Holdings has full responsibility for developing, funding and running the construction project and had to follow strict guidelines set by the Home Office, Ministry of Defence, technical advisors and police.

The centre is necessary, not only to keep the two forces up with training, but because the police have to stop weapons training at the Catterick Army base, in North Yorkshire.

Another benefit of the Teesside centre is the saving on travel costs by both forces.

Mr Shaw said: "Durham and Cleveland police forces deal with different types of problems in our contrasting areas.

"But there is a growing number of crimes involving firearms. Over the last few years we have had considerable difficulty providing training for our officers. Both George Hedges and I wanted a shared training centre.

"This makes good business for Barr Holdings and is good value for money for the public.

"It will provide our officers with state-of-the-art facilities to rehearse all the likely incidents when they are carrying firearms to protect their colleagues and the public."

The firearms centre will provide a 100-metre indoor firing range with computer image targets and a smaller range with simulated live firearms scenarios.

A mock house for assault training will also be included, which can be adapted to become a wide range of buildings for officers to storm.