SNP ‘spinning’ over axed police stations

Statistics include offices not open to the public

THE SNP has been accused of ‘spinning’ statistics to disguise the scale of police station closures.

A raft of controversial ‘front desk’ closures on March 3 means there are now only 153 stations with counters open to the public.

Yet in an attempt to imply cuts are not as widespread as they seem, Police Scotland and the Scottish Government have claimed there are 352 stations.

It has now emerged that this figure includes all operational police buildings – not j ust stations open to the public.

It means police offices at Cove Library, in Aberdeen, and at Braehead shopping centre, near Glasgow, are counted.

Last night, Scottish Tory chief whip John Lamont said: ‘No amount of spin can hide the fact that Alex Salmond has taken an axe to police stations across the country. Some of the buildings he now claims are the equivalent of what the public would regard as stations amount to little more than offices in fire stations or primary schools or garages for traffic officers – and one is even a unit in an industrial estate.

‘With a fifth of courts and half of police control rooms also being axed, thousands of people across Scotland are now being denied access to justice.

‘This once again exposes Mr Salmond’s shambolic approach to justice and his disregard for keeping communities safe.’

A list of 352 ‘operational police stations’ handed to the Tories by Police Scotland includes a host of stations which are no longer open to the public, 61 of which r ecently had t heir public counters closed.

It also i ncludes around 90 ‘offices’ which have never had public counters or which cannot be counted as police stations – for example offices which exist in other public buildings such as schools or town halls. Many of them do not publish their phone number or e-mail address.

The SNP’s controversial unification of the country’s eight forces in April last year was intended to save £1.7billion. But the massive cuts required to achieve that include the closure of ‘front desks’ nationwide.

Others have been downgraded so that they open purely for ‘business hours’.

Responding to the Tories’ criticism, Assistant Chief Constable

‘Misleading and flawed’

Wayne Mawson of Police Scotland said: ‘No operational police building has been closed since Police Scotland came into being on April 1, 2013.

‘There are currently 352 operational police buildings that officers work from, of which 153 have front counters. We continue to invest in improving our estate and opened new police buildings including those at Fort William, Torry [Aberdeen] and Drumchapel [Glasgow], as well as the Crime Campus at Gartcosh [North Lanarkshire].

‘All divisions now have the facility for members of the public to make appointments for police officers to visit them at their convenience to report crime, accidents or other matters requiring a police response at a place of their choosing. These can be held in any of Police Scotland’s operational buildings.’

A Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘These suggestions [by the Tories] are misleading and f l awed. Police classify stations as operational buildings with officers who deploy into communities.

‘According to the Police Almanac [a publication containing police statistics], there were 386 in 2007; there are now 352.’

The spokesman added: ‘It has always been the case that they may not all be open to the public, but they provide essential services and expertise to support local policing.’