AN apartment in the centre of Witney with high ceilings and wooden beams might look like the perfect home.
But just going to view it could cause a few headaches.
The two-bedroom flat sits above and next to Prime Minister David Cameron’s High Street constituency office and is available to rent at £795 a month.
Terrorists or anarchists looking for a base should not get their hopes up. Potential tenants will have to undergo special intensive police checks before gaining secutiry clearance to live there.
And letting agent Finders Keepers is also vetting renters.
Manager June Inglis said: “We are always fairly particular about people anyway.
“Before we even show anyone the property we like to know details about their job so we can find the landlord a good, reliable tenant.
“But with this, people do have to undergo additional police checks to get security clearance.”
She said the checks would be similar to those done on people working in a sensitive location such as a nuclear power plant or military base.
And she said the police were taking precautions even now, resecuring the apartment and sealing the house with tape after every viewing.
The recently-refurbished flat is available for £795 a month and has two double bedrooms, a lounge under a pitched roof and a large kitchen.
Ms Inglis said: “The PM’s constituency office is on the first floor and our flat is adjacent to it and above it.
“The bedrooms are on the first floor and the kitchen and lounge is on the second floor.”
Ms Inglis said Finders Keepers had been through similar security processes in the past.
Most recently the company found an Oxford city centre flat for Bilawal Bhutto, the son of the assassinated former Pakistani president Benazir Bhutto.
Ms Inglis said Mr Bhutto, who was studying history at Christ Church, had his own security team.
Mr Bhutto was catapulted into the spotlight after his mother’s death in 1997, becoming co-leader of her Pakistan People’s Party.
His father, Asif Ali Zardari, is the current president of Pakistan.
Ms Inglis said: “He was a very good tenant as it happens.”
Mr Cameron’s office is the base for the Conservative Party in West Oxfordshire.
It provides offices and meeting rooms for the West Oxfordshire Conservative party agent, West Oxfordshire District Council leader Barry Norton, secretarial staff and the PM himself.
The roof of the apartment was scaled by New Fathers 4 Justice activists in August 2010.
Dressed as the Incredible Hulk and Superman, the pair demanded equal rights for both parents.
Hannah Parmley, the PM’s local press officer, said: “For security reasons we do not comment on the Prime Minister’s movements.”
Thames Valley Police also declined to comment last night on security grounds.
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