The site of the former Aycliffe police station will be transformed into a new care home, as exclusively revealed on Aycliffe Today.
We reported six weeks ago that a new home was expected to be built on the site of the station, which was reduced to rubble in March after it was sold by Durham Constabulary.
Today, the Durham force confirmed it has been bought by Gateshead-based group Helen McArdle Care, who intend to develop a residential care home on the site.
The demolition of the three-storey structure on Central Avenue, built in the 1960s, cost £86,000.
The 1.1-acre site had been on the market with commercial property agents GVA since last September.
The Newton Aycliffe Neighbourhood Police Team moved out of the Central Avenue station in February 2011 after the building was deemed unfit for purpose.
Plans to build a new station had to be scrapped after budget cuts and the Aycliffe officers spent more than two years at the HUB Workspace on Aycliffe Business Park, which proved unpopular with residents, before moving into the town’s fire station in December 2013.
A statement from Durham Constabulary said today: “Local policing teams began working from Newton Aycliffe Fire Station in December 2013, a move which ensured there continues to be a police presence in the town centre.”
Helen McArdle Care was founded by Helen McArdle over 25 years ago and now runs 18 care homes across the North East.
