Plan to sell former police station 'appalling'

A plan to sell a former police station in the Isle of Man's ancient capital has been branded "appalling".

Tynwald last week voted to give Manx National Heritage (MNH) permission to sell Castletown Police Station, which was designed by British architect Mackay Hugh Baillie Scott in 1895.

A backlash against a previous bid by the government to sell the Victorian building for £250,000 in 2018 led to it being bought by MNH.

Chairman of Castletown Commissioners, Tony Brown, said it was "part of a collective of heritage buildings of importance" in the town, which would now "be lost".

He said although it would "still look the same from the outside" when in private ownership, the "opportunity to actually utilise it to reflect an important part of the island's history and our police force is just being lost".

The situation showed the parliament and the government had no strategy for heritage, which meant there was a lack of capital investment in it, Brown said, adding he was "just absolutely taken aback" that Tynwald had allowed the way to be paved for the sale.

The single-storey building, which was closed as a police station in 2017, stands opposite Castle Rushen near to the harbour in the town.

A public consultation in 2019 showed strong support for the preservation of the structure, with almost all of the 400 respondents saying they felt it was important public access to it was maintained.

Although there had been plans for a private operator to take on a tenancy of the building, that did not come to fruition.

In Tynwald political trustee for MNH Sarah Maltby said a re-assessment of the site had concluded "that the building in its current state represents an ongoing and escalating liability".

The level of funding needed to bring it back into viable use was "significant" and MNH "simply does not have the resources to undertake that work without compromising its core statutory responsibilities across the island", she added.

In a statement, MNH said it "recognises the strength of feeling expressed" by Brown and appreciated the local authority's acknowledgement of the heritage body's continued investment in heritage sites in Castletown and the financial pressures it faced.

"By seeking a responsible private owner for the Old Police Station, we aim to secure a sustainable future for the building, one that preserves its heritage while enabling it to contribute positively to community life once again," it added.

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