End of a 40+ year era! Wrexham’s iconic police tower to close its doors for the final time next week

It will be the end of an era for one of the town’s most iconic buildings next week as it closes its doors to the public for the final time.

The police station, including the unique (or concrete monstrosity) police tower, at Bodhyfryd will close on Tuesday afternoon after more than 40 years’ service as the eastern command divisional headquarters ahead of it being demolished.

Service at the town centre site has slowly winding down since the opening of the new facility on Davy Way in Llay last year, with most functions, including CID and custody transferring before Christmas.

This has left just the Wrexham-based Local Policing Services and front counter service at the Bodhyfryd site.

As we revealed in November for the next few months these teams will relocate to a temporary home just a few yards away at Crown Buildings, at 31 Chester Street. They will be based there while work on a brand new town centre police station at the former Oriel Wrecsam space at Library building on Llwyn Isaf is completed.

The front counter at Bodhyfryd will close on January 15th while it is being transferred to the Crown Buildings location.

A temporary mobile front counter unit will be set up near the former station to cover Tuesday 15th and Wednesday 16th of January and will be open between 10am and 2pm.

Inspector Vic Powell said local officers are looking forward to “serving the community of Wrexham from our new temporary base”.

“The station in Wrexham Town has been home for many of us for some years, but we now relish the opportunity to set up in our temporary accommodation before we finally move to our new facility in the Oriel Library,” said Insp Powell.

“The old station has served the community well for the past four decades or so, but time has taken its toll and the premises are no longer fit for contemporary policing purposes.

“The front desk facility at Crown Buildings will be open as usual from Thursday 17th January 2019. Public access to this facility will be via the door off the car park to Crown Buildings and will be suitably signposted.

“I would ask that anyone who needs to access police services at Crown Buildings does not use the main entrance facing onto Chester Street as this is for council staff.

“There will be no specific car park for the police counter service other than the nearby public pay and display car parks.”

Although no date has been set, planning permission to demolish the police station was granted in 2016 – with Lidl announced in May last year as the new owners of the Bodhyfryd site.

Insp Powell added: “I am very pleased that we have managed to maintain a town centre presence between vacating the old station and moving into our new facility at the Oriel.

“It is crucially important that we continue to build on the positive and existing community relationships and I would like to thank Wrexham County Borough Council for their partnership support in providing the facility at Crown Buildings.”

Out of the hours listed above members of the public wishing to use the front counter service can access support through the NWP website, call 101, e-mail, use the live chat link or the use existing external telephone still active at the Bodhyfryd site.

For those readers who have not yet visited Llay in a guest or professional capacity, you can view our video of the new divisional headquarters below!