WHITE VAN Man

SEVERAL weeks ago I wrote about the closures of rural police stations in Argyll. Well, since then the situation has gone from the sublime to the ridiculous.

Police chiefs are hiring highly-paid officials to oversee financial cuts that will see hundreds of police officers in Scotland axed.

In the past couple of years, after some research I did on the cost- cutting farce, I discovered that former banker David Page was hired to help Chief Constable Phil Gormley make cuts.

His salary to take part in this cost- cutting exercise will be £173,000.

This is just one of several extremely highly-paid posts to be paid by this Scottish Government.

Another ‘jobs for the boys’ post is – wait for it – an interim head of strategy and innovation. The person entering this post will be paid up to £ 88,698.

An interim director of business integration will be on a ‘competitive salary’ for 12 months of £76,641. And all this is about saving money in Police Scotland.

What a farce. And at what cost? This whole saga in my mind is an outrage.

It would appear that the old story goes on, while the common five- eighths are left to get on with the job on a day-to- day salary, the fat- cat professionals are offered obscene salaries to make life difficult for our emergency services.

Where does all this end? Are the police top dogs sending a message to the unscrupulous criminals of today’s world saying: ‘Come on in, there isn’t a police station in this village or town. Help yourself. We can’t get police officers on the scene for 20 or 30 minutes.’

You may laugh, but this could be a reality for many small villages and towns in rural Scotland. What a disgrace.