Tensions are mounting between Hampshire Police and Winchester City Council over the constabulary's plans to refurbish its HQ, writes Giles Gwinnett.

The police authority has threatened to leave its Romsey Road base and look for other premises if its appeal against the planners' decision to refurbish and extend the site is turned down.

The move to appeal against last October's refusal of the £5.2m project was taken at a full authority meeting after members received financial and planning advice from its officers and consultants.

Members were also asked to consider whether the authority should leave the city. "There's no doubt our aspirations were thwarted," said Simon Hayes, police authority chairman.

Another thorny issue is the question of staff parking at the Romsey Road HQ. Original plans for the redevelopment included proposals to increase car parking spaces for staff, but the city council said the numbers should be reduced and staff encouraged to find other ways of getting to work.

Mr Hayes said the authority had tried all it could to come up with an appropriate "travel to work" scheme before the application had been submitted.

Chief Constable, Paul Kernaghan, said no park and ride scheme currently served the headquarters: "It's great to have these aspirations, but I'm concerned about the men and women who come to work."

He said the vast majority of his staff couldn't afford to live within a mile of Romsey Road and were forced to drive to work. "People seem to be more interested in policy statements than tackling the problem of staff getting to work and what we do to encourage people to stop using cars. We want to reduce the numbers of cars and we're very happy to work with them if it's reasonable."

Constabulary finance director, Michael Coombes, has written to Winchester City Council's director of development services asking to be kept up to date on plans to extend park and ride to Romsey Road and offering co-operation in exploring how buses might call at police HQ. We believe minimal works would be needed on site to accommodate buses.

"If offering to carry these out helps to speed up progress towards achieving a park and ride service to Romsey Road, then we would be pleased to discuss these with the relevant authorities.

"If this service cannot be provided, it is unreasonable to expect the constabulary to make reductions in parking at headquarters. There has to be a viable alternative in place."

A spokesman for the city council said: "We've constantly urged Hampshire County Council to look at the provision of park and ride on that side of the city as soon as possible."

City Council leader, Sheila Campbell, said she would be sorry were the police to leave the city.

"We have been talking with them about alternative buildings in Winchester and alternative designs for their existing site."

The best solution, she felt, would be a new park and ride facility on the Romsey Road side of the city if it could be demonstrated there was a need.