Video: Wrexham’s police station closes for the final time

A piece of Wrexham history was made this afternoon after the doors of the town’s iconic police station closed for the final time.

After more than 40 years of being the home of the eastern command divisional headquarters, the front door of the Bodhyfryd station was locked for the last time at 3:27pm this afternoon.

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.

For the past few months just the Wrexham-based Local Policing Services and front of counter services have been based at the Bodhyfryd site – something we’re told has created a contrasting atmosphere to when the station was a hive of activity, and with the modern new facility in Llay making the shortcomings with the 60’s designed building even more stark.

Speaking to Inspector Vic Powell in the bare station corridors this afternoon, Wrexham.com were told that “it is the people who work here that create the memories, not the building itself”.

Opened in March 1974 the police tower has continued to divide opinions over the years, with some seeing it as a unique part of the town’s skyline with others describing it as a concrete monstrosity.

However Insp Powell explained that the building is no longer fit for 21st century policing – particularly in comparison to the new state-of-the-art facility in Llay.

Many of the floors and offices have already been cleared, with staff members packing up the last of the boxes and items throughout the day. The front desk and reception at the station was also effectively ripped out and removed earlier today.

This afternoon the team working their final shift gathered on the steps outside for their last photo at the station, with the shift returning to the new temporary base just a few yards away at Crown Buildings.

There have been concerns that the town policing operation would be impacted by the relocation of the eastern command divisional headquarters and custody suite to the new site in Llay.

Insp Vic Powell offered his assurances that there would be no change to the town police operation and the officers and staff that have remained at the Bodhyfryd site would continue to serve the town from Crown Buildings.

The new 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, which North Wales Police say will be suitably signposted – and we have included a quick walk there in the above video.

Police will be based there until work on a brand new police station in the former Oriel Wrecsam at the Library is complete in the coming months.

We took a look a the new Llay facility a couple of months ago, you can see our video of that below…