A TOWN has been offered a "once in a lifetime" chance to have a £1.9m police station built free of charge.

Plans have been announced by North Yorkshire Police to build a station on the Wentworth Street car park, in Malton.

Thirsk-based Severfield-Reeve Projects has offered to build the station for nothing in exchange for being able to turn the existing police headquarters in Old Malton Road into apartments.

Ryedale's District Commander, Inspector Neil Burnett, said the new location would allow police to clamp down on drug use, so-called boy racers and criminal damage in the area.

Formal applications for both the old and new stations are yet to go before Ryedale District Council's planning committee, as council officers are still in the process of collecting reports and responses from interested parties.

But Insp Burnett, who was speaking publicly on the plans for the first time, said the new station would be a major boost for policing in Malton.

"A relocation to Wentworth Street car park would make the police more visible in the heart of the town, and would provide better access to the police services for people and businesses in the town centre," he said.

Insp Burnett, who has been Ryedale's police chief for six years, also said that the proposed relocation would provide a much-needed respite for people living near the crime-hit car park.

He said: "One instant advantage of the new station would be that its mere presence in Wentworth Street car park would enable us to address anti-social behaviour such as boy racer activity, criminal damage, nuisance, and drink and drug use which regularly takes place in the car park and nearby cemetery.

"Many Malton residents are persistently affected by this and strenuous demands have been made on the police to respond. A new police station in Wentworth Street Car Park would rid the area of these problems in one fell swoop as well as giving the town a state-of-the-art police facility which many rural communities lack and would be proud to have."