Staffordshire's top cop and the commissioner who gave the go-ahead for almost £15m to be spent on a firearms training facility have explained why the facility is needed.

The indoor training centre is set to be built at Staffordshire Police's Stafford headquarters and will provide facilities including a 50m firing range.

Plans to splash out £18m on a new facility hit the headlines last year when Staffordshire's former Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner Matthew Ellis was quizzed about the proposals. But he decided to leave the final decision to his successor after he stood down at the May 2021 election.

Ben Adams became the new Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner last year. And last month it was revealed that he approved revised proposals for a new training training centre – just weeks before trained firearms officers from Staffordshire Police were sent to London to assist colleagues in the capital in the days after the death of Queen Elizabeth II.

Speaking at the latest Police, Fire and Crime Panel meeting he said: "This is a really significant capital commitment and one that is absolutely essential for the future safety of people in the force area. You may recall, just before I was elected last year, some discussion about a new firearms training facility, talk of 100m ranges, £18m plus.

"I think the previous commissioner felt it was not appropriate to make a decision on that just prior to the election. I was happy to pick it up and was not particularly convinced of the merits of some of the proposals, value for money and most importantly, whether we'd thoroughly explored opportunities to consider sharing a resource like this with neighbouring forces.

"It's taken a little while – a year or so – to get right through that process and it's a very thorough one. It's come up with a rather straightforward solution that we improve the armoury and base the firearms training range at the HQ in Stafford, and that's the best value and guarantee that we have got a service into the future."

At Tuesday's police performance meeting Mr Adams asked Chief Constable Chris Noble to explain the need for the new facility. He said: "This attracted quite a bit of attention a year or so ago and there's a huge investment there – nearly £15m.

"I know it has taken a while for me to be convinced about that. What are we delivering?"

Chief Constable Noble replied: "I think that sum of money stands out to the public. Can that not be utilised for more police stations or other investments?

"The challenge for policing is there are certain specialist skills we need to maintain, not just for keeping Staffordshire safe but as part of a national commitment, whether it be around counter-terrorism, public order or mutual aid – for example Operation London Bridge. When the Queen passed we sent officers with particular firearms skills and capabilities down to London.

"There was a significant policing operation around the death of Her Majesty and Staffordshire contributed upwards of nearly 50 officers at different points and times around that operation. If we didn't have a fit for purpose range we couldn't have done that, we would breach our responsibilities to the rest of the country, we couldn't train our own armed response teams.

"So the need for a bespoke purpose-built facility is not just there morally, it's there legally and from a health and safety point of view. We did a lot of due diligence about could we share the facility with another force – the reality is if you do the mathematics you would probably need a facility which had to run 25, nearly 26 hours a day potentially.

"It made sense, even at significant cost, to deliver what's an absolutely essential facility in-house. But the headline needs that level of context around it.

"Quite legitimately the public are asking 'do you really need to spend that money?' We have no choice, the facility that is going to be built will be an excellent facility and it will future-proof that requirement for some considerable period of time."

Mr Adams responded: "If you hadn't have convinced me of that I wouldn't have approved it. It's taken us a while – I was absolutely convinced there was not a practical option with neighbours and very keen we explored that properly.

"I'm not comfortable with what we have got now quite frankly. It's not enough in our control and it's not where it needs to be in terms of making sure we're fully trained."