A CONTROVERSIAL new police station has been officially opened.

Durham Police Authority chairman Councillor Joe Knox performed the ceremony at the Spennymoor station, in Wesleyan Road, next to the town's leisure centre, which has been operating since November.

Town councillors had branded the station a £2m part-time white elephant, because it closes from midnight to 8am, to free an officer from desk duty for other operations.

A telephone link enables night-time callers to contact police at Newton Aycliffe.

Coun Knox said: "The authority is committed to providing the best facilities so that our officers can carry out their work effectively.

"Being right in the heart of the community, the new police office is much better-placed for local people, and is in every way a huge improvement on the old building."

The station replaced a century-old one in Dundas Street, which was previously a magistrates' court and provided accommodation for the town's inspector and sergeant.

Chief Superintendent Paul Tinkler, Sedgefield police division commander, said: "This new building is a better working environment for our officers and that will benefit the whole community."

Special guests were ten-year-old Mark Seymour and Jessica Richardson, from Tudhoe Colliery and Middlestone Moor primary schools, respectively, who won a competition to design a Millennium Cop.

Their entries were chosen from more than 300 designs by pupils from schools in Spennymoor and are now framed and hanging in the station's front office.

Chief Supt Tinkler said: "We wanted to show the police office is for all of the community, both young and old, and the competition did just that.