Dyfed-Powys Police takes back £20m Ammanford station

The station has cost the force around £700,000 each year

Dyfed-Powys Police has taken ownership of a police station from the firm which built it in a deal to save the force £3.1m.

Ammanford police station was built under a £20m private finance initiative (PFI) and the force paid around £700,000 a year to lease it over 30 years.

Police and crime commissioner Christopher Salmon said the fees paid to get out of the contract cost £160,000, but would lead to savings.

The station opened in 2001.

It was closed to the public for a while under cost-saving measures.

Previous talks to cut the annual cost to the force in 2013 failed.

Mr Salmon previously called the deal a bad one, saying it was a "state-of-the-art police station in the wrong place for the wrong price".

Announcing the end of the deal, he said: "The savings will be invested into front line policing and keeping people safe.

"I've long said that the PFI deal, which I inherited on my election in 2012, did not deliver value for the public and the police."

The station was being operated by Ammanford-based company Dolef.