Auction sale of former Sedgley police station offers best hope for new lease of life

The proposed sale of a former police station in Sedgley is the best hope of bringing the landmark building back into use, according to Bond Wolfe Auctions, the firm bringing the property to the market in its next auction on Wednesday 31 March.

A host of alternative uses for the building – including apartments, community or meeting space, offices or even hospitality – have all been suggested for the old station building in Vicar Street, which is listed for auction with a guide price* of £260,000.

It was among two dozen selected for closure three years ago. Police chiefs argued at the time that many of the buildings were under-occupied and the money could be better spent on frontline officers.

Ian Tudor, managing director of Bond Wolfe Auctions, said: “A successful sale of the old station building will secure more money for the police service in the West Midlands and find a new use for a site that would otherwise be in danger of ending up derelict.

“This is an attractive and historic building with parts dating back to the 1730s and we are confident it will attract considerable interest from developers and investors from across the UK and abroad.

“It is important is to secure a future use for the building before it starts to decay through lack of use.

“Successful sales of police stations and old beat offices over the last decade have seen scores of empty buildings given a new lease of life and, surely, that is what most local people will want for the former Sedgley police station?

“It represents a part of Sedgley’s history. Our understanding is that the oldest section of the building was part of the Dudley Workhouse until it was converted for use as a police station in the 1860s.

“It is an attractive building , mostly on one floor, extending to more than 7,000 sq ft, made up of offices, meeting rooms, a boiler room, WCs, locker room, kitchen and stores, with a large car park across the road and fronting on Gospel End Street, with a garage block.

“It is close to Sedgley’s town centre and next to All Saints Church. Altogether a very enticing proposition for any developer.

He pointed out that similar former police stations in the area had already successfully been redeveloped as housing or apartments, but a broad range of community or commercial uses are also possible if the appropriate planning permission is secured.

Sedgley police station was due to close in the summer of 2019 but the last officers based there only left finally in October last year to move to Dudley Fire Station as part of a shared-premises scheme. The station had not been open to the public for some time before that.

The Sedgley station will go under the hammer at Bond Wolfe Auction’s next online auction on Wednesday 31 March.

Successful sales of former police buildings across the West Midlands over the past three years have helped raise hundreds of thousands of pounds of much-needed funding for the police service and the property programme as a whole is expected to free up £5 million a year from running costs.

It is expected to be one of the main attractions for potential bidders, with thousands of people set to take part in the online sale.

Bond Wolfe Auction’s February event saw a record catalogue achieving a record sales figure of £24.6m with a staggering success rate of 96%.

The marketing run-up to the auction resulted in 1,049,714 website page views, 237,758 video tours watched, and on the day over 3,500 people were registered to bid with over 23,000 tuning into watch the auction live.

Ian Tudor added: “The figures speak for themselves. Our auctions continue to grow in size and we now have global as well as national reach.

“Moving to online, live-streamed auctions has opened up our catalogue to buyers who would never have attended a one day physical auction in Birmingham.”

The company is already seeing strong demand for Bond Wolfe Auctions’ next auction, which once again starts at the earlier than usual time of 8.30am on Wednesday 31 March.

The auction will be livestreamed via Bond Wolfe Auctions’ website with remote bidding by proxy, telephone or internet only.

More details are at www.bondwolfeauctions.com, or email [email protected], or call 0121 312 1212.