A former police station which has been lying empty of nine years will be converted into flats.

The former Walthamstow Police Station in Forest Road will be converted to house 20 flats, after Waltham Forest Council’s planning committee approved the plans on Tuesday, January 7.

The red-brick, Victorian Jacobean-style building, built in 1892, was closed as a police station in 2011 following an arson attack.

Following the attack, staff and services were relocated to Chingford Police Station.

The Metropolitan Police decided the building was surplus to requirements, saying the building could not meet modern requirements, and sold it.

Feroz Yussuf, planning applicant for the site, has been attempting to secure planning permission to convert the sire into flats since 2014 but has had several proposals rejected.

The accepted plans will see 20 self-contained flats – four three-bed, ten two-bed and six one-bed – delivered with a part ground, first and second floor extension to the rear.

Mr Yussuf will contribute £2,000, £100 per new dwelling proposed, towards the cost of delivering the council’s Air Quality Action Plan and the monitoring of air pollution in the borough.