Police chiefs have announced plans to upgrade a Perthshire rest centre for injured officers.
A series of improvements will be carried out at the Castlebrae Centre in Auchterarder, following approval being given by its board of trustees.
Around 1,500 serving and retired officers attend the centre every year. During their stay, they are offered rest, respite and specialist treatment for injuries.
The charity Police Treatment Centres, which runs Castlebrae and a similar unit in St Andrews, said the planned “rebuild” would significantly improve facilities.
A spokesman said: “Most importantly, it will improve the levels of care, treatment and support that we pride ourselves in delivering to all of our police patients who attend this facility.”
The Castlebrae project includes a redevelopment of the rehabilitation gym that will see it double in size and the creation of a new swimming pool. There are also plans for a new hydrotherapy pool, as well as the creation of a much larger fitness and exercise hall, a purpose-built spin bike studio and several other enhancements.
The charity said it had been a “long-held aspiration” of the trustees to make improvements to the centre, stating: “We have always described our Castlebrae facilities as very good but, like all organisations who aspire to excellence, we have been determined to redevelop and update them and ensure they live up to our well-deserved reputation as a class-leading facility in the treatment of ill and injured police officers.
“However, balanced against this aspiration to improve Castlebrae, both trustees and the senior management team had to be sure that a scheme such as this was both affordable, cost-effective and was going to deliver proper value for money.”
The spokesman said: “As a result of much recent hard work sourcing further grants and donations, as well as a rigorous feasibility and affordability process, tenders have been submitted and a company has been selected to deliver the project.
“Work will start at Castlebrae soon and although there will, of course, be some disruption to our patients, we will aim to minimise this and keep the throughput of patients at as high a level as possible.”
The scheme was boosted with a donation from the UK Government of £100,000 worth of banking scandal cash. The money was part of a £10 million payout to benefit emergency service staff and volunteers across Britain. The cash came from penalties imposed on some of the world’s biggest banks for the Libor-fixing scandal.
The award was used to offer specific treatment at Castlebrae, to promote better health and wellbeing to officers and speed up their return to work.”