COUNTY councillors will next week consider a proposal to relocate Southwold Fire Station – 0.8miles away.

The plans to build a new, better-equipped station in Fountain Way, Reydon, would allow the current site to be sold and a new station with community facilities built.

It is claimed it would cost a “significant” sum of money to make the improvements necessary to bring 50-year-old Southwold Fire Station up to modern standards.

The new station would meet the fire and rescue service’s current and future operational demands, would be more financially sustainable, would save energy and would be protected by a fire sprinkler system.

The money raised by selling the current site will be used to substantially fund the new development.

Assistant chief fire officer Mark Sanderson, of Suffolk Fire and Rescue Service, said: “We keep all of our fire stations under review and have identified that we need to improve the condition of Southwold.

“We believe that, as an alternative to investing in the current station, it would be advantageous to build a new station in nearby Reydon. This will help us to realise the maximum advantage from having a newly-designed fire station.”

Feedback from a drop-in information session to discuss the plans back in August showed residents in the area were generally supportive.

The majority of the on-call firefighters based at Southwold already live in Reydon, meaning the move would also cut journey times to the station.

If approved, building work would begin early next year. The new station would become operational in the summer of 2013.