Wellesbourne police station to be sold for housing

Some residents have criticised plans to sell-off a police station in a south Warwickshire village.

Wellesbourne police station is to become a residential dwelling after planning permission was granted by Stratford District Council.

Some villagers said it was important to have a "visible police presence".

But Warwickshire Police, which is aiming to save more than £20m, said its patrols would continue to "provide the same level of protection".

The force said it was carrying out a review of its buildings as part of plans to meet the financial challenges it faced. And as part of this, the station in Kineton Road was considered no longer suitable as a part-time police base.

'Same response times'

But some residents regard the station as an important asset for fighting crime.

One resident, Rosalind Bolton, said: "It will be the first time for 170 years or so that there hasn't been a police station in Wellesbourne.

"It is a large place with 6,000 inhabitants and a visible police presence is so important and once it's gone it will be gone. We shall never have a police station again."

However, Warwickshire Police said the Safer Neighbourhood teams, who will be based at Stratford-upon-Avon police station, would deal with daily needs, while patrol teams would still respond to incidents.

Sgt Rich Thomas, who leads the Wellesbourne Safer Neighbourhood Team, said: "Although we will not have a police base within Wellesbourne in the future, the team will continue to patrol and provide the same level of protection.

"We want to reassure members of the public that we can still be contacted in the same way now and in the future either by telephone or email and our responses will be the same."

They also added that response times would "remain the same as at present".

In January, Warwickshire Police said it needed to sell its headquarters in Leek Wooton.