PLANS to make the county's police stations more user-friendly are taking shape.

Refurbishment work has already started at the Preston headquarters and a new front entrance for Penwortham is in the pipeline.

The move is part Lancashire Constabulary's improvement programme and comes ahead of a damning report by the Audit Commission, Action Stations.

The report, based on eight police forces and how they managed their estates, concluded that many were outdated, in need of repair and unable to meet the demands of modern policing.

The Constabulary welcomed the report which, although not based on local sites, offers guidance on managing its buildings and estates, currently valued at around £140 million.

They include Leyland's modern town centre station which was built around five years ago next to the town's Magistrates Court on Lancastergate.

Lancashire Constabulary's property services manager, Steve Hodkinson, said: "Our intention is to ensure we have the best facilities available to support operational policing and we are already putting into place many of the suggestions and recommendations of the Audit Commission report.

"We have prepared a property database to look at things like location, the age and condition of our buildings, utilisation and future expenditure requirements.

"Not surprisingly we identified some problems like unsuitable locations, poor condition of some properties and a maintenance backlog.

"We are pleased that our approach mirrors much of what is said in the Audit Commission report and we are confident that we will meet our efficiency target and improve service delivery.

"We spend more than £5 million a year on heating, lighting, cleaning and paying the rates on our buildings, so it is important that we look for the best value for money."

Preston Station's re-vamp includes creating a major incident facility with improvements to the scenes of crime and intelligence areas.

It will also provide a communications room for the millennium project and self-contained accommodation for the Police Support Unit. The work is due for completion next month.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.