Police officers are planning to create a new base on an Oxford estate.

The base will be located at the site of Oxford City Council’s former IT Hub in Westlands Drive, Northway.

Thames Valley Police aims to open the office, which will house the estate’s neighbourhood police team, later this month.

Residents have supported the idea, saying it will make them feel safer.

Pc Jon Shaw, from the Marston and Northway neighbourhood team, said the base would make police officers and the estate’s police community support officers (PCSOs) more visible to the community they served.

He said: “It will give us more access to the community and provide a place for us to hold our neighbourhood meetings and surgeries. It won’t be manned 24 hours a day, as it’s not a police station, but it will be a base for officers and PCSOs on duty.

“The problem we have had in the past is that we are having to travel back and forward to Cowley police station throughout the day, which can take a while.

“This will mean that once we are on the estate we can stay down there for the day.

“It will also make it possible for us to respond to any incidents quicker and just being there will be more of a deterrent to those who want to commit crime.”

Pc Shaw said the location of the new base was in an area that had been highlighted by residents through the estate’s neighbourhood action group.

He said the new neighbourhood base had taken six months to arrange and would hopefully be open by the end of the month, adding: “A lot of the antisocial behaviour in the past has been centred around the shops in Westlands Drive.

“We hope this will help to reduce this antisocial behaviour even further than we already have.”

Antisocial behaviour is one of the three priorities of the Northway and Marston neighbourhood action group, along with speeding and parking.

The Northway outpost is the fourth of its kind, following the creation of other community police bases in Rose Hill, Barton and at Sainsbury’s supermarket at Heyford Hill, Littlemore.

A fifth base is planned for Blackbird Leys.

Northway resident Susan Roberts, 54, of Halliday Hill, said: “I think it will be good for the estate.If there are ever any problems, I don’t think of going all the way up to Cowley, but I would be more likely to wander down to the new base and have a chat.”

Rob Croft, 60, of Upway Road, said: “It’s nice to see the police and PCSOs in the community. It makes people feel safer, even if they aren’t needed.”

ckearney@oxfordmail.co.uk