‘Labour will keep 999 call centres open’

Local service will stay, pledges MSP

Scottish Labour has pledged to keep police control rooms in Aberdeen and Inverness open.

In an exclusive interview with the P&J, the party’s justice spokesman Graeme Pearson threw down the gauntlet to the SNP by committing not to shut the call centres if they win May’s Scottish elections.

There have been fresh calls to halt the closures after theM9crash scandal, as well as revelations that 999 calls from the north and north-east would be handled in the central belt.

More than 430 people have signed a P&J petition calling for the call centres to be kept open. Mr Pearson said: “Any sensible organisation would ensure that ‘belt and braces’ are in place to make sure no risks are being taken. There is all that local knowledge that would be lost.

“I would expect the governmenttohave offered the assurance we have the best mapping, the best intelligence systems – but they have not done that.”

A Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary Scotland report has said the closures should not go ahead without there first being independent checks.

But Justice Secretary Michael Matheson dismissed any suggestion that the closures – currently on hold– wouldbereversedby external experts, raising fears that an independent review would be “merely a box-ticking exercise”.

Asked if Labour would commit to keeping the control rooms open, Mr Pearson said “yes”.

He added: “A police force must exist first and foremost to serve the public. These changes have reduced the service to the public. They have closed local call centres, police counters, local stations – these changes have removed local policing from our streets.

“The only sensible thing to do is to call a halt to the current programme of closures.”

Mr Pearson said a lack of planning from the SNP onhowa single forcewould operate is behind the problems facing the force.

He said: “There is not a business plan thathas been put together in terms of the control- room closures. They should be thinking about cross-service control rooms – control rooms that would be able to share the intelligence, share the local knowledge. I raised that with the (then) justice secretary KennyMacAskill, but he just rejected that out of hand.”

A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: “The Scottish Police Authority, Scottish Fire and Rescue ServiceandScottishAmbulance Service are actively working to identify opportunities

“The only sensible thing to do is to call a halt to the closures”

for joint working and collaboration.

“The proposed regional control room model will allow each service to serve the country from strategically located sites that will enable a strengthened and effective approach to call handling and dispatching of resources.”

Sign our petition on www.ipetitions.com/petition /save-our-call-centreskeep

Graeme Pearson