End of an era as one of Fife most prominent police stations reduced to rubble

The long arm of the demolition man's digger has prelaced the long arm of the law as the station is torn down. (Pic George McLuskie).

The Long arm of the law has been replaced by the long arm of the demolition man's diggger, as one of Fife's most prominent police stations is torn down.

Napier Road police station in Glenrothes, for so long the centre of police activity in the town, is being demolished this week to make way for addition car parking.

For anyone who had their ‘collar felt’ in the town in the last five decades, the building, it’s likely the building won’t be missed, but it’s demolition marks an end of an era in policing terms for law abiding townsfolk.

Officers relocated to the former Fife Headquarters building in Detroit Road on the outskirts of the town in October, 2015, after a review of Police Scotland facilities rendered the Napier Road building ‘unfit for purpose’,

The Napier Road police station in Glenrothes.

Since them, the station has been boarded up and become a magnet for youths and suffered several break ins.

Fife Council took control of the site earlier this year and have now sanctioned the demolition to make way for a car park for its employees.

The demolition marks the closing of specific ear of policing in Glenrothes which stretches back to the earliest days of the town’s development.

In 1954 as the town was built, two police officers lived and worked out of two houses in Well Road. Before then policing had come under the jurisdiction of Markinch officers.

The first polce station in Glenrothes was opened in 1954.

A move to Rimbleton Avenue followed in 1959 and was meant to be temporary but actually lasted until 1971. A move then to South Street in the town before relocating to the purpose built Napier Road station in 1975.

Officers are now based at the former Fife HQ building in Detroit Road, which was built in 1996.