A police station serving a post-war residential neighborhood in northwest Edinburgh, Scotland is moving toward redevelopment after Police Scotland awarded a contract for a multi-discipline design team to plan the project.
The Drylaw Police Station, which serves the Drylaw area and surrounding communities in Edinburgh's North West, will be redesigned rather than closed, according to the procurement award posted on Public Contracts Scotland. The contract covers the architectural, structural, and engineering design work needed to move the project from concept into a buildable plan.
The award matters beyond one neighborhood. Police Scotland, the national force created in 2013 by merging eight regional forces, inherited hundreds of properties of varying age and condition across Scotland. Many stations date to the mid-20th century and have grown increasingly expensive to maintain. The Scottish Police Authority, which oversees the force, has pushed for years to consolidate and modernize that estate, but station closures have drawn sharp criticism from communities and local councillors who argue that shutting facilities erodes visible policing in neighborhoods that depend on it.
Drylaw's redevelopment signals a different approach: investing in a facility rather than walking away from it. The neighborhood, which includes significant social housing, sits within a City of Edinburgh Council area currently governed by a Labour-SNP coalition. Edinburgh's population of roughly 540,000 makes it Scotland's capital and one of the country's most densely policed urban environments.
Modernized police facilities in Scotland have sometimes been designed for co-location with other public services, such as council offices or community hubs, allowing the cost of a new building to be shared across agencies. Whether Drylaw's redevelopment follows that model has not been confirmed.
With designers now under contract, the next step is the production of detailed plans, which will likely require planning approval from the City of Edinburgh Council before construction can begin.
