Planning approval imminent for new Downpatrick station

Planning approval imminent for new Downpatrick station

19 September 2012

PLANNERS will next week give the green light for work to start on Downpatrick’s new £10m police headquarters at the Downshire Hospital site in the town.

It is expected the new base, which will replace the current station in Irish Street, will be operational in three years’ time.

Construction work is expected to get underway before the end of the financial year to provide officers and members of the public with a modern police base, with the funding provided by the Policing Board.

Formal planning approval for the new three-storey area command unit will be granted at next week’s monthly meeting of Down Council and the news has been welcomed by South Down MP Margaret Ritchie.

The MP, who has been campaigning for a modern police base in the town, said the new station is vital to the regeneration of Downpatrick.

Miss Ritchie said the investment will boost plans for the creation of a so-called public sector campus at the Downshire site and help improve town centre traffic flow when the current base is demolished to make way for a new road linking Irish Street and St. Patrick’s Avenue.

She continued: “The removal of the Irish Street station will allow for the redevelopment of this part of Downpatrick and help with the provision of much-needed housing and environmental improvements.”

Miss Ritchie said the so-called masterplan she brought forward for Downpatrick when she was Social Development Minister recognised the need to redevelop the current PSNI site and the positive impacts it would bring to the town.

The MP added: “I hope the approval of the planning application for the new police base will signal the beginning of construction work and have made urgent representations to Justice Minister David Ford and the Policing Board to ensure funding is released urgently.

“There must be no further delay in providing this much-needed facility and the benefits it will bring for Downpatrick and the surrounding area.”