Police station will be shut down (From Daily Echo)

Shirley Police station in Southampton will be shut down and sold off

2:00pm Thursday 14th March 2013 in Crime By Jenny Makin, Crime Reporter

A SOUTHAMPTON police station will be put up for sale next year and more than 80 officers moved to a new home in a fire station, the Daily Echo can reveal.

Plans are underway to move the safer neighbourhoods team (SNT) out of Shirley within months and into a building at Redbridge fire station.

The big move is part of an ongoing estates review being carried out by Hampshire police looking at the future of buildings and stations across the county, as the force strives to save more than £50m.

Ultimately the building and land at the back which is used as a car park will be put up for sale, while the force will pay “a favourable rate” to Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service to rent the building in Redbridge Hill.

HQ concerns Already a large swathe of officers have moved out of the Shirley station, including the public protection team, who are now based at the city’s new police headquarters in Southern Road.

The SNT is expected to move by July, meaning that only the district CID team will remain in the Shirley High Street building, which is no longer open to the public.

There is currently no firm plan of where they will relocate, although the intention is to keep them within the community and move them before the end of the year.

It was in May 2011 when the Daily Echo first reported on a plan to close stations across the county as an estates review got underway to look at the 100 buildings owned and rented by the force.

It was later revealed that 39 would be sold in a move affecting over 400 staff.

However the issue has been revisited under the orders of Hampshire’s police and crime commissioner Simon Hayes, who raised particular concerns over the multi-million pound purchase of Alpha Park in Chandler’s Ford for a new police headquarters which has never been used.

He has brought in an independent advisor to review the entire programme in a bid to ensure the best financial decisions are being made.

Shirley is the latest station to move into fire brigade premises, following in the footsteps of Twyford, Stockbridge and Alresford.

Mr Hayes said: “The deal has already been done to move, that was a decision made before I came into post, however I think it is a sensible one.

“The building is on the fire station site and is not needed by the fire service any more.

“We will be paying a favourable rate to an organisation we are already working with closely.”

l Residents are being invited to a public meeting so that they can be told of the local plans and given reassurance that the police will remain visible in their local community.

It will be hosted by the police and Mr Hayes on March 20, from 6.30pm.