FED-UP locals have sent a plea to police chiefs to clear up an abandoned police station that they claim is becoming an eyesore.

Hound Parish Council says Hampshire Constabulary should do more to maintain Netley's former village police station in New Road.

The station was closed early in 2001 in a shake-up of policing in Eastleigh's southern parishes.

It has since been left neglected while police bosses search for a buyer for the site that already has planning permission for five homes.

The parish council has received complaints from local residents about the state of the disused site and has fired off a number of e-mails and made numerous phone calls about the overgrown, shabby condition of the former police base. Parish clerk Sue Hobbs told the Daily Echo: "It is in a bit of state. It is overgrown and not looking too attractive."

A police spokesman said the force was in the final stages of selling off the site and that the decision had been made not to spend any more public money on it.

"We hope the sale will go through very soon. It would be a waste of public money to tidy up the site when it is going to be bulldozed anyway."

Hound parish councillor David Airey added: "This has been their story line all the way through. This almost imminent change of hands to the developer seems to have been going on for a very long time."

Residents had staged a long-running campaign to keep the police base open. However, the station's fate as a police base was sealed in March 2001 after police said it was uneconomic to refurbish the building.

They also argued that combining officers from Hedge End and Netley had resulted in better police cover for the southern parishes.

Following the closure, Hampshire police applied for planning permission to build a two-storey rear extension and change the use of the building, dating from the 1920s, into five two-bedroom homes with parking for eight cars.

They then appealed to Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott against Eastleigh Council's failure to determine the application within eight weeks and the matter was thrashed out at a public inquiry in June 2003 before the plans were approved.