PLANS for a new station for Accrington police have been lodged with the council.

Last month the Lancashire Police Authority was told that the proposed £1.5million move to a new building was on hold pending force-wide reviews into frontline policing.

But now plans are being made for the future.

The preferred option is for the constabulary to rent a new-build property called Castle House on police owned land adjacent to the existing station off Manchester Road.

The site was previously the road policing unit who have been relocated and an empty car showroom.

Bosses said that would be ‘cost neutral’ as it would balance out the current bill of maintaining the crumbling Grade-II listed building.

Police said no plans had been finalised on what would happen to the current site, of which part of the building is the county court.

Both renting it out and selling the building off are being considered. The site is next-door to the old Accrington Fire Station which has been empty since it closed eight years ago.

The application for the new base was submitted on March 14 and received by council planning chiefs on March 21.

It proposes a two-storey station following the demolition of existing buildings.

A spokesman for the Lancashire Police Authority said the force had identified three potential sites for a new police station, but ‘nothing firm’ was yet in place.

Lancashire Constabulary is submitting planning applications for each one and they will be considered later in the year.

The spokesman said: “Until we know the outcome of the planning process no decision will be taken. It is just one factor in the whole decison-making process.

“Everything is then subject to a final decision from the Lancashire Police Authority.”