THE FIRE Brigade has acquired over three acres at Manvers to be used as the site of a fire station and training centre.

The station will house four tenders and provide training facilities for the technical rescue unit which will move from its base at Rotherham.

There will also be a community room that the public can use for meetings and events.

The new station on Manvers Way, costing more than £5 million, will replace the stations at Brampton and Mexborough which will close.

Work, due to start this month, will be finished by March next year. The technical rescue unit is expected to be finished by May 2010.

The brigade's chief officer Mark Smitherman said: "The new Dearne Fire Station will enable us to provide an excellent emergency response to the main residential areas in the Dearne Valley.

"In addition to this, we will also have a state-of-the-art training facility, which allows us to further improve the level of training we give to all of our fire-fighters.”