WORK began this week on the new £12 million police station in Stevenage. The new station will be the state-of-art headquarters for the county s police force covering the eastern region. The whole plan is slightly behind schedule following a lengthy disput

WORK began this week on the new £12 million police station in Stevenage.

The new station will be the state-of-art headquarters for the county's police force covering the eastern region.

The whole plan is slightly behind schedule following a lengthy dispute with Stevenage Borough Council regarding Hertfordshire Police Authority demanding the return of part of the station car park on Lytton Way.

The council initially demanded compensation of almost £1m but had to settle for just over £200,000.

Even though the plans were pushed through friction is understood to have arisen again when the council asked the Authority to submit them again when they said they could not now afford to build a single-storey car park above the one they currently have.

After the Police Authority insisted the plans would not need to be re-submitted the council relented and the original plans will be used following what the Authority says has been a compromise with the council.

"If we had been forced to re-submit the plans it would have caused delays and increased costs," said a Police Authority member.

"Agreement, thankfully, has now been reached on this issue and we will be going ahead with the plans as quickly as possible."

This week demolition of the old canteen block began as the first stage of the multi-million pound project started.

It is hoped building work will be able to progress quickly and the whole project will be completed and the new station fully-manned by 2008.

It has now been revealed that the new police complex will house 24 cells compared to the 12 it currently has.

Once it is completed it will mean Comet country having one of the finest police stations in the country with more manpower and equipment to tackle crime.

When the plans were first announced the Authority said it would probably mean smaller police stations in Hitchin, Letchworth and Baldock, but promised none of the current police stations would close until replacement sites had been found.