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A new £21.5m eco-friendly police station hailed as the UK's greenest has been officially opened.

The new Eastern Command and Custody Facility in Llay has an 80 kilowatt solar array on the roof and rainwater harvesting for washing 85 police vehicles a week.

It also has s mart LED lighting reducing energy by about 50% than equivalent older buildings, police chiefs say.

Some of the refurbished desks and chairs came from the former divisional HQ in Wrexham it has replaced.

The 8,680 square metre complex, built by contractors Galliford Try, has offices and facilities for 350 police officers and staff, including 32 cells, canteen facilities and two gyms as well as locker rooms and garages.

Most of the chairs and office furniture came from local suppliers, including Shire Hall in Mold and from the old police station in Wrexham, while outside seating and tables are made by people with learning disabilities at Meifod Wood Products Denbigh.

(Image: Mandy Jones Photography)

The high-rise former police station in Wrexham is due to be demolished and a new town centre station with a public front desk will be opened in the former Oriel Gallery in the town centre.

North Wales Police and Crime Commissioner Arfon Jones, a former police inspector, officially opened the facility today.

He said: “Nearly 90% of the furniture was refurbished or remanufactured. 40 tonnes of CO2 greenhouse gas emissions and avoiding 26 tonnes of waste, saving £300,000 compared to the average cost of mid-range furniture.

“It is vitally important that we ensure that our new buildings are as energy efficient and as environmentally friendly as possible and I believe that this is now the most environmentally friendly police station in the UK.

“It is a wonderful facility and to be able to house the staff for Wrexham and Flintshire in one purpose-built location is excellent.

(Image: North Wales Daily Post)

“It has been future-proofed and will provide a wonderful working environment for our staff – far better than the town centre tower where I spent many years. "

Mr Jones thanked everybody involved in the project including project manager Liz Bryan.

North Wales Police Chief Constable Carl Foulkes said: “This has been an amazing project resulting in a fantastic new facility which will make such a difference to policing in the area.

“With administrative offices, key policing functions and a state of the art custody suite now ideally located to serve Flintshire and Wrexham, I am delighted that we have a facility which enables us to meet the demands of a modern police environment. "

North Wales Police environmental and energy conservation manager Anna Pretious said: “We project a £10,000 a year saving on energy costs with 10% of the electricity generated by solar power and 80 per cent of the rest from other renewable sources."

(Image: Mandy Jones Photography)

She added: “As a force we have been taking wildlife and bio-diversity very seriously for 20 years and here we had habitat and geological surveys done by Dr Birch which showed there was a mosaic of habitats here which have been protected during and after construction.

“As well as Dr Birch we now have the site managed by Ecological Land Management whose offices can be seen from the site and this has given us continuity and consistency in our approach."

Oak, birch, willow and wildlife-friendly flower beds have been planted, rare plants include the pennyroyal and five species of orchid and there are also great crested newts on site.

An ecology corridor has been established to allow wildlife to move freely past the site to the hedges by the main road to the industrial estate while during construction, the development team donated rescued orchids to planting projects at Wrexham Prison and to the Orchids for Schools Project.