A Fife police station will soon be on the move after the region’s police authority and NHS reached agreement on the plans.
St Andrews’ police station in North Street is to close under Fife Police’s proposal and officers are expected to move to the former NHS Fife health centre in Pipeland Road at some point over the coming months.
Authority has now been granted by Fife Council as police authority to enter into an occupational sub-lease of the health centre with NHS Fife for a single one-off payment of £105,000, with the council being granted appropriate occupation rights.
To ensure a town centre presence is maintained, a public counter service is likely to be created at the council offices in St Mary’s Place.
Around £100,000 set aside in the police’s capital plan for renovation at St Andrews will instead now be spent on converting Pipeland Road, while the money generated from the sale of the North Street station is likely to be invested elsewhere in the force estate.
St Andrews police station, dating from 1905, is said to be in need of significant upgrade. The force concluded the layout is ”restrictive,” not suitable for modern policing, and that money would be better spent elsewhere.
A similar police station move is under way in Cowdenbeath, where the existing station will be shut and sold and a new base set up in Fife Council-owned Brunton House in High Street.