VOLUNTEERS could man Barnoldswick police station until the early hours of the morning, according to the area's top officer.

Almost 20 people have so far stepped forward to monitor the town's new CCTV system in their own time and Inspector Richard Clare told councillors in nearby Colne they may be able to keep the base open until 1am.

The Barnoldswick station now only opens for at least eight hours a day, from 10am to 6pm, but some people have been calling for it to open 24 hours a day.

Responding to the demands, Inspector Clare said: "We are hoping to open in the evening with volunteers.

"We've got 16 people to watch the CCTV and we could also open the station.

If volunteers put the hours in we could open until 1am or 2am.

"If anyone from Colne wants to volunteer for their station, they are more than welcome."

His comments followed calls fromy Pendle MP Gordon Prentice for a return to Tardis-style police boxes and Colne councillors' concerns about their town's station being unmanned.

He said: "Opening police stations comes down to money, you need to have staff all night.

"And how many people come to a police station between 1am and 7am?

"We do actually have equivalents of the Tardis. Police boxes were a visible presence on the streets. Anyone walking around town will have seen a lot of help buttons.

"These are an automatic communications link and also train lots of cameras on you. They are panic buttons and they are very useful.

"The other thing is that nearly every police station has a phone outside it that puts you straight through to the communications room at Burnley.

"We also have a portable police station which we can put in areas a long way from a police station.

"There are a lot of things available for us, short of time machines."

Barnoldswick councillor David Whipp said he was unaware of plans to open the town's police station later in the evening.

He said: "I wouldn't want people to get their hopes up but an increased presence would be extremely welcome."