BURY is to get a new multi-million pound fire station.

Plans are in the pipeline to build a new borough headquarters and deployment station on land at Castlecroft.

If given the go-ahead, the new station will be neighbours with Bury police, who have already been given planning permission to develop a £20 million state-of-the-art divisional HQ on the same site. A new access road is to be created under the police redevelopment plan, which would link Peel Way with Woodhill Road in Brandlesholme, making the Bury Ground site a more desirable, central location for the proposed new fire station.

A feasibility study is currently being conducted by Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service's estates department to assess the suitability of the Castlecroft site.

The future of the existing fire station in The Rock has been in doubt since Thornfield purchased surrounding land and started work on the £150 million Rock Triangle development. Mr Kevan Whitehead, Bury's borough fire commander, said plans for a new fire station and its proposed new location were still at an early stage.

He said: "Our current station is on a prime piece of development land and it is coming to the end of its working life.To bring it up to modern day standards would cost a lot of money.

"At present, we are in active talks with Bury Council over the use of a plot of land at Bury Ground, adjacent to the new divisional police headquarters, for a new borough fire station.

"Relocating to this site would give us a more central base allowing greater access to all parts of the borough and therefore improving our service to the public."

Meanwhile, the new three-storey police station will boast stylish office space, a public reception area, interview rooms, a large custody suite, training areas, and a crime scene garage.

The scheme will see parking provision for 129 staff, 39 operational officers, and 21 visitor/disabled spaces. High security fencing would be erected around the majority of the grounds.

The divisional HQ in Irwell Street, built in 1971 when Bury was policed by Lancashire Constabulary, is in need of major repair, but is also deemed too small and unsuitable for disabled access.

Once a new HQ is built, the existing station would be demolished and the site redeveloped for housing or office accommodation. No date has been given for the start of the police station's development.