Police find a drug farm on their doorstep

POLICE have found a cannabis farm growing next door to their own station.

The farm – with 1,022 plants – was discovered in a former magistrates’ court next to Runcorn Police Station in Cheshire.

It was shut in 2017 in a decadelong cost-cutting cull of half the 320 magistrates’ courts in England and Wales. Meanwhile, the backlog of cases has risen to 364,122.

Shadow Justice Secretary Steve Reed said: ‘It beggars belief. Criminals are walking free because of the disastrous case backlog, yet a court sold off by the Conservatives is being used to grow cannabis.’

A 20-year-old has been charged over the Runcorn discovery.