TWEED Shire councillors have begun lobbying the NSW Government to build a new central police, ambulance and fire brigade complex which could replace aging police stations at Kingscliff and Tweed Heads.

The councillors voted unanimously this week to push their preference for a new location for an “inte- grated emergency services facility” and help with finding a suitable site.

National Party MPs for both Tweed, Geoff Provest, and Lismore, Thomas George, whose electorate includes Murwillumbah, are to be told the combined new complex is the council's “strong preference”.

But the councillors watered down an original motion from Mayor Kevin Skinner which called for the complex “rather than expansion of existing police stations at Tweed Heads and Kingscliff”.

Cr Skinner revealed that senior police officers had met with council staff to pursue the upgrading of the existing Kingscliff Police Station which fronts Marin Prd at Kingscliff.

He said both the Kings- cliff and Tweed Heads police stations sites were “severely restricted” and he believed a “new integrated facility would be a much better outcome for the Tweed community than expansion on the existing sites”.

“The present Kingscliff police station is on the beachfront in a 50-kilometre-an-hour area and is highly populated,” Cr Skinner said.

“The same can be said tor the ambulance and fire stations. An alternative site should be sought for these facilities.”

Cr Joan van Lieshout raised concerns the police might resurrect proposals for an emergency services centre on Cudgen Road in Kingscliff, saying it would interfere with “four lanes of traffic”.

Previous plans for a stations there raised concerns it would be on prime agricultural land.