New police chief outlines £40m HQ hope

David Allen was elected to the post in July

A county's new police chief has revealed plans are afoot for a new £40m headquarters.

David Allen, who was elected as Cumbria's police, fire and crime commissioner in July, has described the current building, Carleton Hall in Penrith, as not "fit for purpose".

Officials were "working on plans" regarding the location, he said, and hoped it would become a reality in 10 to 20 years' time.

He also said he wanted to open police "shopfronts" to provide a visible presence in towns where stations had closed.

Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, Mr Allen also said the police stations in Workington and Whitehaven were coming to the end of their working lives and could be replaced by a new "blue light" centre at Lillyhall.

He said he would "make sure we have satellite offices for the police that are very, very visible in the town centre because I think that is where we have lost our way a little bit".

"In the last 14 years my predecessors closed 16 police stations and there isn’t a market town really that has got a community police station left," he added.

"I don’t have the money to reopen those but what I do want to do, however, is get shopfronts in those towns so there is a visible place for the police in the heart of the community and people know they are there."