POLICE in Pershore will keep a presence at the town's civic centre after the district council agreed a deal to buy the former station.

The leadership at Wychavon District Council backed plans to take on the ownership of the police station at a meeting this month.

The decision comes after plans to sell the station, in Queen Elizabeth Drive in Pershore, were revealed in February last year.

Leader of Wychavon, councillor Paul Middlebrough, said it was important to the people of the town to have a policing post in the town.

"We will acquire the police station in Pershore. The police will then have an office within this building," he said. "We are pleased this will keep a police presence in Pershore."

The deal sees the police cements a presence in the council offices in Pershore, where they have been based since October 2012.

Vic Allison, deputy managing director at Wychavon, said: "We own the freehold of the police station next door.

"The police have made it known that they no longer need that building but still require a presence in Pershore.

"So the deal is that we buy back the lease and allow them to take some offices space by mutual arrangement in the civic centre."

The closures also saw Broadway Police Station shut down and staff moved to Evesham Police Station but it was replaced by a policing post in the village and

When the proposals were first voiced they aimed to save West Mercia Police £1.5 million, just part of the £20.1 million it is required to save by 2015.

Outlining the cuts at police HQ in Hindlip, police and crime commissioner Bill Longmore said: “I can look back at generations of policing from 30 or 40 years ago and safely say the basics have not changed. It’s all about people.”