Work on a new £4.6m police station in Cumbria starts this spring.

The Eden deployment centre is set to be built on land on the edge of the county force's Carleton Hall headquarters site.

It will replace Penrith's Hunter Lane station - and act as the base for the officers in the neighbourhood squad covering this part of Cumbria.

The overall scheme will also see police hostel accommodation - used to house new recruits and those training at HQ - replaced on the site.

The office of Cumbria's crime commissioner, Peter McCall, says the overall scheme is intended to save money in the long run.

An update on the scheme was given at a meeting by the county's chief constable, Jerry Graham.

He said the station in Penrith was old and "somewhat decrepit" and that the site for the new base currently housed old police houses.

These, he added, were "redundant and ready to be scrapped".

"The plan is to level that to the ground and build a new deployment centre that will cover the whole of Eden," said Mr Graham.

"We will have somewhere the public can go to if they want beat officers for Eden, who will deploy from this site."

A spokeswoman for the commissioner said the Hunter Lane station will eventually be sold.

The funds raised from the sale will go toward the cost of the new deployment centre.

Those working on the scheme are aiming for an agreement with an outside agency in the town centre.

They would then share a front counter to maintain a presence in the heart of Penrith.

The spokeswoman explained the thinking behind the scheme, which is a key part of the force's "estate strategy" covering its buildings.

"The replacement of Hunter Lane Police Station and the hostel accommodation are a priority within the estate strategy," she said.

"Both buildings are expensive to maintain and run.

"In addition they have high backlog and future projected maintenance liabilities.

"The accommodation within Hunter Lane is not flexible and does not support the accommodation needs of modern policing.

"The new facility allows easy access for the Eden neighbourhood policing team to the key roads, with much easier access to the A66 and will mean that they will be able to travel to rural locations quicker."

She added: "The hostel accommodation is currently sub-standard and there is insufficient capacity.

"The new facility will improve the standard as much of the force’s training takes place here at headquarters."

The old police houses in the site are currently used for hostel accommodation.

Officials said the cost was not confirmed - but the present estimated build cost was £4.6m.

Mr Graham was speaking at a meeting of the Cumbria Police and Crime Panel, which oversees the work of Mr McCall. It was held near Penrith.


It's not the only new station scheme in the pipeline for Cumbria Police.

Up to £13m is being set aside to potentially build a new police headquarters for west Cumbria.

The force's current base in Workington may become a long-term casualty of the floods, with a plan in place to possibly shift to another site.

Cumbria Police and the county's crime commissioner are looking into both constructing a new HQ - or extending the stay at the Hall Brow station.

But the current site has been swamped in two of the county's disastrous floods, posing questions over its future.

Land at Lillyhall, on the edge of Workington, is under consideration for any new headquarters.

The west headquarters is the central base for a patch stretching north and east of Wigton and all the way south to Millom.

It covers towns including Whitehaven, Maryport, Cleator Moor, Egremont, Cockermouth and Keswick.


The changing public face of crimefighting

Budget cuts and changing ways of operating have led to the closure of nearly 20 police stations or bases in Cumbria in just over five years.

Since 2011, law-keeping outposts that stood for generations have vanished from towns and communities.

Police chiefs blame cuts for them having to make the tough decision between keeping bricks and mortar - or officers to fight crime.

A number of other smaller community bases have opened.

Those leading the force say they have to cut their cloth according to the cash available - and older traditional buildings eat up money.

Among the stations to close include the satellite station in Carlisle's Welsh Road.

In west Cumbria, a number of sizeable towns, including Maryport, Egremont and Cleator Moor, have seen stations close.

Ulverston, Dalton and Millom are among towns where stations have closed, to be replaced with much smaller satellite bases.