MORETON Town Council has offered to build an office extension in a bid to keep a full-time police presence in the town.

Town councillors voted unanimously in favour of the proposal, which would need planning permission and be paid for out of the council’s capital funds, at their meeting on Monday.

The move comes as Gloucestershire Police Authority’s plans to get rid of Moreton police station and replace it with a police information point, possibly at the library, as part of an £18million package of cuts being made over the next four years.

However, town council chairman Rod Hooper, who has argued that a town the size of Moreton deserves a permanent police presence, said the council was prepared to build a purpose-built office adjoining its offices in Old Town, Moreton, for the police to lease or rent.

“We feel there always must be a police presence in Moreton. This is something we could offer them to keep them,” he added.

The town council is due to meet next week to decide its response to the consultation on the future of policing in the town.

Support for Moreton’s call to keep a full-time police presence in the town has come from the Mayor of Stow.

Councillor Robin Jones told Stow Town Council meeting last week that he backed Coun’s Hooper’s call for Moreton to keep a permanent police presence.

Coun Jones said that with the prospect of a new 300-home estate on land at the Fire Service College and the possibility of another 300 homes on land off the Todenham Road, Moreton is going to need more police.

"If the estate goes ahead the superintendent has got to take it on board. They are going to need proper policing," said Coun Jones.