A NEW central police station for the town centre is due to open within the next few months.

The current police station in Elm Street is now largely empty after most of the police staff – both uniformed and civilian –moved to the new offices at Landmark House on the edge of town last autumn.

Only a few offices in the building are now open – providing a public face for the police in the town centre and serving as a base for the town centre Safer Neighbourhood Team.

Now the police are hoping to move into a new office in Museum Street, just a few yards from its junction with Westgate Street.

Police officials are holding talks with planning officers from the borough council to ensure that the planning application has a reasonably smooth passage.

However there is not yet any date yet set for it to be discussed by members of the borough’s planning and development committee.

Suffolk police and crime commissioner Tim Passmore said it was important to have a town centre site that was clearly recognised by the public.

He said: “The office will be very near the main shopping street of the town centre and we hope that everything will go through relatively smoothly.

“If things go as well as hoped, we may get it up and running by July. We shall just have to see how things go.”

The move to Museum Street would complete the police reorganisation of its role in the town centre.

While administrative duties have been transferred to Landmark House, suspects are now held and questioned at the Police Investigation Centre at Martlesham Heath.