RISLEY Police Station is set to shut and move into Birchwood Fire Station, it has been announced.

Cheshire Police has launched a consultation to relocate the force's services around half a mile from its current base on Delenty Drive to the Ordnance Avenue fire station.

Under the proposals, the helpdesk at Risley Police Station would also be relocated to Warrington Police Station on Arpley Street in the town centre.

Plans for such a move were first mooted in 2017.

Warrington Guardian:

Birchwood Fire Station - picture by Google Maps

Risley Police Station currently hosts meetings and suspects interviews and also acts as a base for PSCOs to book on and off shifts, while its helpdesk is open from Monday to Friday between 10am and 3pm.

But Cheshire Police says that the building is 'too large and requires considerable investment to upgrade its facilities'.

The force believes the move would save around £27,000 per year.

A spokesman said: "Risley Police Station is not in a good location.

"It is situated on a no-through road in a quiet residential area, and therefore has limited prominence in the locality - resulting in very poor footfall compared to other police station help desk sites.

"The fire station at Birchwood has much better visibility in the local community.

"A six-week review of demand and footfall across all police helpdesks in Cheshire was carried out in 2017, which revealed that Risley had the lowest level of demand.

"This tells us that moving the helpdesk facility would not impact on many people.

"In addition, very little of the current building is used and so it costs more than it should to run this service."

Cheshire Police also revealed that for every 100 people who access Warrington Police Station helpdesk, only two use Risley's.

Its spokesman added: "The police base at Birchwood Fire Station, and the police community base at Birchwood Library, will still mean there are facilities available locally for confidential conversations with police officers.

"The constabulary is still very much committed to having a building-based service in the local community of Risley and surrounding areas.

"There will be no impact in terms of response times for the police if the proposals go ahead - police are not currently deployed from Risley and will therefore not see any change."

A consultation on the plans runs until Thursday, March 7.