Princess Anne Opens Cambridge Fire Station

21 January 2015, 16:04 | Updated: 21 January 2015, 16:56

Princess Anne was in Cambridge this afternoon to officially open the Parkside Fire Station and the new homes built above it.

Her Royal Highness The Princess Royal had a private tour of the station and residential development and met firefighters and station staff who work there. She also greeted dignitaries, schoolchildren who made some of the artwork displayed in the building, and went into the home of a Hundred Houses resident.

HRH then unveiled a plaque to officially open the fire station, and a separate plaque to mark the opening of the Hundred Houses development - Chester House. You can see a video of her doing it here.

9 year old Freya and 7 year old Edie presented the Princess with flowers. Freya told Heart: "She was very quiet and really nice and really beautiful. She asked if any of my family were in the fire station and she also asked if I like it here and I said yes."

Edie added: "She looked really pretty and was really kind. She asked me if my dad worked here."

CFO Graham Stagg said: "It was an honour to meet The Princess Royal and to mark the official opening of this building, which has been over a decade in the making.

"We hope by meeting firefighters, community safety workers and our support staff based at the fire station that The Princess Royal has had a good insight into not just the operational service we provide for Cambridge but also how preventing fires in the community is just as important in this modern fire and rescue service."

Sir Peter Brown said: "It was an absolute pleasure to welcome HRH Princess Anne to our state-of-the-art fire station and to mark the official opening of a project we are all incredibly proud of.

"It has been a real team effort with our partners to create this development and that theme has continued on today as it pleased us to see so many organisations join in what has been a momentous celebration."

The new Fire Station was redeveloped on the site of the old station, which was knocked down in 2010. Firecrews then moved into the new building in June 2013