PLANS to knock down former police offices in Southampton and replace them with homes have been submitted.

Developer BB Property Ventures Ltd wants to replace the complex in Hulse Road with 44 new houses and flats.

The company has filed plans with the city council, and should hear whether the proposals have been successful by the end of the year.

Daily Echo:

Artists impressions of the proposed Hulse Road homes

As previously reported, the offices in Hulse Road were until recently home to one of Hampshire Constabulary’s three major crime departments and the Serious and Organised Crime team and have seen some of the county’s most high profile cases investigated there.

Those teams have since moved into the new city police station in Southern Road, while the site was also home to the Southampton and New Forest Coroners’ Office.

However that has since moved to The Castle in Winchester, meaning the site is now largely empty.

BB Property Ventures – which is jointly owned by Burton Property and Bargate Homes – now legally controls the site and will purchase it from the Police Authority pending the outcome of the planning application.

The plans for the site would see the existing buildings demolished and replaced with a mixture of two, three and four-storey buildings which the developer says would reflect the Victorian and Edwardian design of many surrounding buildings, but with a more contemporary appearance.

The site would contain eight three-bed houses and 36 flats, divided between six one-bed, 26 two-bed and four three-bed properties.

Adam O’Brien, a director at Burton Property, said: “The development would be of a very high quality.

“We have done a lot of community consultation which has been very valuable and has played a key role in the plans we have submitted, and we are hopeful we can gain a positive planning resolution and revitalise this redundant site.”

Mr O’Brien said work on site could begin in the first half of next year if the plans are approved.