Council to build HQ on police station site (From The Northern Echo)

Council to build HQ on police station site

3:46pm Thursday 2nd February 2012 in Bedale News

A £12.4m council headquarters for 500 staff will be built on the site of a police station.

Harrogate Borough Council will buy the North Park Road site, which police are set to leave in May for an £18m base, accomodating 200 officers and a 16-cell custody suite in Beckwith Knowle, south of Harrogate.

The council scheme will be funded through borrowing and the sale of its sites at Crescent Gardens, Knapping Mount, Scottsdale House, Springfield House and Victoria Park House.

It is understood the council’s landmark headquarters in Crescent Gardens is likely to be sold and converted into a hotel.

North Yorkshire Police’s town centre police Safer Neighbourhood Team will move into a base in Victoria Avenue, before relocating again, to the new council headquarters, which is scheduled for completion in 2014.

Chief Constable Grahame Maxwell said: “This is a welcome development which will pave the way for a permanent town-centre police base for the future.”

The need for a new police station in Harrogate was raised around nine years ago as its North Park Road sire was in need of substantial refurbishment and could not support the demands of modern policing.

Councillor Don MacKenzie, leader of the council, said: "We recognised that decisive action must be taken now to enable the council to continue to provide our residents with quality service at lower cost in the years to come."