PLANS to build a new complex of police detention cells in Leyton has been agreed in principle by councillors.

Waltham Forest Council's planning committee agreed outline planning permission for the Metropolitan Police's scheme, which is for a custody suite of around 30 cells to be built on derelict land between Leyton High Road and Hainault Road.

Current plans are for the roads to be fronted by around 30 homes, with the police facility situated behind.

Local Safer Neighbourhoods Teams would also be based in the centre.

The council's cabinet member for community safety, Afzal Akram, said the existing lack of cells sometimes dictates the kind of policing that is possible in the borough.

Mr Akram said: "When it comes to dealing with low-level crimes, like the DVD sellers at Temple Mills, sometimes I get the response, we can arrest them but I have to send officers off the borough.'"

If Waltham Forest's 12 existing cells are full, local police officers can be forced as far afield as Basildon or Southend if they wish to arrest and detain more people.

Conservative councillor Alan Siggers said: "There's not a single planning reason for turning this application down.

"Our cells are normally full by five or six o'clock. So any scallywags they want to bang up after then have to be taken to other parts of the world.

"There is a pressing need for this."

He also praised the application for including family housing.