Scottish Conservatives have expressed concern for the future of Scotland rural Police Stations. Last week Police Scotland announced the closure and reduction in hours at dozens of police station front counters has been announced by the force.
Liz Smith, Scottish Conservative MSP for Mid Scotland & Fife said:
“The fact that the public will no longer be able to access local police stations will mean that the public benefit argument for retaining a station in the future will have been significantly diminished.
“I like many other elected representatives have expressed concern that the removal of public counters at police stations could lead towards the closure of police stations which will ultimately see rural communities lose their local stations and local policing .
“Recently we have seen Police Scotland closing Police control centres across Scotland with services being centralised in the central belt, concerns are now being expressed that rural Police Stations may now be a future area which may be cut.
“Scottish Conservatives warned that the single police force would ultimately lead to cuts to rural community policing and this is now being proposed.
“This is yet another example of the SNP centralisation of our police services and is the start of a slippery slope to removing local policing.”
“Scottish Conservatives have raised the issue with SNP Ministers who like with the closure of Police control centres across Scotland have washed their hands of the cuts.”