POLICE will start booking people at Wantage Library after they move to a new £1.13m station outside the town.

Thames Valley Police want to close the 45-year-old Wantage police station, in Church Street, and relocate to a new building at Grove Technology Park by March 2013.

But to keep a presence in Wantage town centre, a £80,000 counter service will be created in a garage building at the Stirlings Road library.

The police authority said it would shut the existing station, next to the former magistrates’ court, last year.

The new base at Grove will provide 24-hour cover, with response and neighbourhood officers and special constables all stationed there.