WORK to create a temporary park on the site of a former police station in Bradford city centre will start this summer.

The grassed area, described as a peaceful garden, will be on the site of The Tyrls, which once dominated City Park, but is now a pile of rubble.

The site is currently being levelled and workers are due to move on to it next month, adding grassed areas, plants and benches.

Eventually, the area will be used for office development.

Bradford Council used the same idea in 2010 when building work on The Broadway shopping centre stalled and the Urban Garden was created as a temporary solution to having a large unused city centre space.

A spokesman for the local authority said: "The backfilling and levelling off of the site of the former Tyrls building will be completed this month and next week the hoardings will be moved back a little which will create more space around the City Park Pavilion.

"The landscaping team will move onto the site during August when they will create grassed areas, plant beds, and install benches for people to enjoy this peaceful temporary garden. The garden will stay until new offices are built some time over the next few years."

When demolition work began in May, leader of the Council David Green said the cleared site would be marketed to developers and would be more attractive as a flattened plot.

Outline plans are already in place for three new office blocks of between three and five storeys on the site.

The office blocks called One City Park, Two City Park and Three City Park, aim to provide 93,000 sq ft of grade A office space, enough to house 700 employees.

The Tyrls building was used a police station for 30 years, before Bradford South Police relocated to Trafalgar House, in Nelson Street. It has been empty since 2007.

It was partly demolished in 2010 as City Park was being built - some of the building remained as it was needed to access cells which were connected to the magistrates’ court by an underground tunnel.

Replacement cells were built at the other side of the court building and opened earlier this year, meaning the remainder of the police station could be razed.

The work to build the new cells as well as demolish the remainder of the former police station and clear the site for redevelopment is expected to cost £4.5 million, with £2.2m of this being met by the Homes and Communities Agency and the remaining £2.3m being paid for with cash secured by Bradford Council from the Regional Growth Fund.