Lindum completes £2.7m Howden fire station for Humberside Fire and Rescue Service

Lindum Group has completed a £2.7m fire station at Howden, Yorkshire, for Humberside Fire and Rescue Service, rebuilding the on-call base on the site of a station that had served the town for more than 60 years.

The contractor said on 16 October that its York team delivered the scheme as part of the fire service's Capital Estates Programme. The fire service announced the official opening of the station on 2 October 2026.

The new building has an appliance bay, improved changing and welfare facilities, a multi-purpose room, community meeting spaces and upgrades to the existing training tower, Lindum said. The first floor has gym facilities, wellbeing spaces and meeting areas that both fire service staff and the local community can use.

James Nellist, Managing Director of Lindum York, said: "The new Howden Fire Station demonstrates what can be achieved through true collaboration between the client, design team, stakeholders and our supply chain partners."

The building

Roof-mounted solar photovoltaic panels and an air source heat pump replace the former station's oil-fired heating, so the building runs primarily on self-generated electricity, according to Lindum.

The fire service said the project completely redeveloped the station on its existing site, replacing a building that had reached the end of its operational life. Howden Fire Station was established in 1964 on Hull Road, east of the market town, and is crewed by on-call firefighters serving Howden and the surrounding area.

Chief Fire Officer Phil Shillito said: "The opening of our new Howden Fire Station represents a significant investment in our people," and that the station was designed to support firefighter wellbeing and improve operational effectiveness as part of the service's ongoing estate investment.

Site conditions

Lindum said the site was constrained and the project team had to manage unforeseen ground contamination, previously unidentified wells, burst water mains, utility diversions and the relocation of telecommunications infrastructure serving the wider area, while keeping mobile coverage running throughout the works.

The contractor worked with the fire service, the Joint Estates Service and Sewell Advisory on the scheme. Lindum said it delivered a larger facility on the restricted footprint to programme and budget, following a 28-month programme from concept to completion.

The fire service's opening announcement did not name the contractor. It said delivery of the station strengthened its partnership with the Joint Estates Service it shares with Humberside Police, and thanked Mike and Linda Hall for their support during construction.

Lucy Wileman, Estates Programme Manager at the Joint Estates Service, said seeing the finished station open was a proud moment for the project team and that it was good to see crews return to their permanent home.

Background

When the fire service announced the rebuild in August 2024, it said the new station was expected to be completed by 2025. During the works, on-call crews operated from a temporary station at Howden's Joinery's main site in Howden, which the fire service said was down the road from the existing station, so response times were unaffected.

Jon Henderson, Area Manager at Humberside Fire and Rescue Service, said at the time that the rebuild was an investment in the future of the community.

Lindum was founded in 1956 and has been partly employee-owned since 1994. It has more than 600 employees, of whom more than 500 are shareholders, with offices in Lincoln, Peterborough and York, and reported sales of £209.3m in 2025.