Old police station building to become official police museum for Milton Keynes

The future of the building has recently been secured after years of standing empty.

Thames Valley Police finally sold off the site, which included five redundant police houses, in 2021 to Churchill Retirement Living for £2,750,000 and the company, following a planning appeal, won permission to building housing for older people on the land.

However, their plans do not include the historic but dilapadated police station itself, and they decided to gift this to the Newport Pagnell Town Council, which wants to use a chunk of the space for its own offices.

The town councillors offered the remaininh space to Newport Pagnell Historical Society and a £1.2m restoration project began – funded by the town council.

"The Town Council has been saving up for this project for a large number of years, as it did not wish to burden residents with interest charges by borrowing funds. It is important to note that we do not receive any government funding,” said an NPTC spokesperson.

Building works were completed – but the historical society, who had not signed any contracts, decided not to take the building on, saying future maintenance costs could be beyond its budget and it preferred to stay in its current museum building in Silver Street.

This left some residents worried about a potential “waste of money” and also concerned about what would happen to the police station building.

"This project is now the dominant driver of the council’s finances and has materially altered budgets, reserves and council tax levels for local residents,” said one.

Now, however, the town council has announced its new plan – to use what space is not needed for its offices as an official police museum.

Currently all local police memorabilia is housed in a small room at the back of the Witan Gate police station at Central Milton Keynes. The new museum will be bigger, better and more accessible to the public, says the council.

Their spokesperson said: “It seemed very fitting that this museum would now be returning to its original site in refurbished premises that are museum worthy. This legal terms for this arrangement are currently being agreed between the Town Council and Thames Valley Police. Ultimately it will offer a museum that is open to the public more often than the museum proposed by the Historical Society would have been. We also have an opportunity to house within the building displays from a Model Railway Club, which will add to the cultural and historic uses of the building.”

The spokesperson added: “The Town Council sees this project as enhancing the vitality of the High Street, whilst providing a venue to help residents in our growing town and surrounding area to become familiar with the history of the area, and to grow to both love and respect it. The social value of such cultural spaces should not be ignored.”

The Old Police Station, as well as being a base for police for more than a centrury, also once housed the local magistrate court.