TENDRING'S top police officer has promised officers will still be catching criminals after a town's police station was sold.  

Earlier this year the Gazette revealed Walton's former police station has been sold for a fee believed to be in the region of £300,000 after a buyer reached an agreement with estate agents.

The property, which is in Martello Road and has been granted full planning permission to be used as a four bedroom house, had been on the market since March.

The former police station had closed in 2015, and Essex Police then approached Sheen’s estate agents last year offering them the property.

Despite being a former police station the property did not have any police cells.

Some characteristics are still prominent in the building with many of the buildings decorated with blue walls and carpets, and a reception rooms still in place.

District Commander for Tendring, Chief Insp Ella Latham said residents in Walton would not see any difference in the level of response in the town. 

She said: “Our Community Policing Team have continued to work from Thorpe-le-Soken, but most importantly they are visible every day in the Walton and Frinton communities.

“Our level of service that our local communities can expect and will get from Essex Police will not change.

“We will continue to be out, visible, accessible, catching criminals and working hard to prevent crime.”

Essex Police said it had operational bases in Thorpe-le-Soken, Harwich and Clacton.

The front counter at Clacton Police Station remains open and is staffed by Essex Police employees from 9am to 5pm, Monday to Sunday.

Walton police station had been identified in 2011 as a building that could be sold by Essex Police.

The cost of relocating the station’s radio mast – a project which would have set the force back more than £20,000 – saw the building survive for another two years, but with Essex Police required to make £5.5 million in cuts, it closed for good in 2015.

At the time of the closure, former Chief Constable Stephen Kavanagh said: “Essex Police costs less per person in Essex every day than a pint of milk, making us a great value force but meaning that we’ve got no easy choices to make in terms of what to save.”