INVESTIGATIVE police officers based in Cheltenham will be moved to Gloucester ahead of schedule.
Gloucestershire police had been planning to build a new home for the officers on land close to its HQ in the Waterwells estate on the outskirts of the city.
But the county's Police and Crime Commissioner Martin Surl has decided to buy nearby offices recently vacated by Kodak in Davy Way instead.
The purchase of the three-storey building for £1.5million will allow the Force to advance the long-awaited relocation programme of officers from the Lansdown Road station in Cheltenham by at least 18 months because it will not have to wait for new offices to be built.
The price tag for the photography company's old offices is less than half of what would have been spent on a new build and Mr Surl is convinced he has snapped up a bargain.
It means previous plans to build on a 2.8 acre site currently owned by the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner (OPCC) can now be scrapped.
The new-build on the 2.8 acre site would have been lower specification than the property purchased, with parking and other facilities at an estimated cost of around £4m.
That means a saving to taxpayers in the region of £2.5m.
Mr Surl said: "As well as saving a large amount of public money, the land that was previously marked for development can now be sold or used for something else, and along with similar savings we've made on the new custody suite, it is another example of the sound financial management the OPCC has brought to the organisation."
The Kodak building will become a base for the county's CID, financial investigators, domestic and child abuse investigative teams, Scenes of Crime Officers, high tech crime, Public Protection Bureau and a Multi-Agency Safeguarding Hub.
Head of specialist crime operations, Detective Chief Superintendent Bernie Kinsella, said: "A move from Cheltenham has been on the cards for a very long time.
"This is a practical solution that is also cost effective.
"Although the details have still to be worked out, we can now plan ahead with more certainty".
Gloucestershire police still wants to move out of the Lansdown Road station in the long term.
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