BEWDLEY and Stourport police stations will be downgraded after a shake-up, aimed at saving £1.5 million a year, was announced by West Mercia Police.

The plans would see Bewdley’s Kidderminster Road site become a community policing post, which will not be permanently manned but will be a base for officers and volunteers working in the town. A police building in the Walshes will take on the same role.

In line with announcements made in February, Stourport’s Bewdley Road site will also close as a traditional police station and become a home for community officers patrolling the town. Discussions to relocate the facility to Stourport Civic Centre are still ongoing.

A small police base in Queen Elizabeth Road, Comberton, Kidderminster will close, with officers who used it being deployed from Kidderminster Police Station, Habberley Road.

The force’s Police and Crime Commissioner Bill Longmore and Chief Constable David Shaw announced the plans today and want to reduce the number buildings owned by West Mercia Police.

They say the changes will allow for more police officers and police community support officers to keep their jobs. Wyre Forest MP Mark Garnier said it would see more police on the streets.

Mr Longmore said: “I understand the closure of local police buildings is an emotive issue for many communities. The important thing is every community continues to have a good policing presence.”

He said a consultation held earlier this year had “opened up a range of opportunities to work together or share office space with our many partners”.

Mr Shaw added: “The underlying ethos of our approach has been, where possible, to invest in people, not buildings.”

The changes will be made from September this year and it is hoped they will be completed by March, 2016.