Clydesdale MP David Mundell has criticised Scottish Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill for failing to recognise the importance of keeping open the public counter at Biggar Police Station.
Mr MacAskill has revealed that in a 20 day period at Biggar there were just over 60 visits by members of the public, but that was not enough to keep the station open.
In a letter to the MP, who is campaigning to keep the public counter at Biggar open, the Scottish Minister said this was a low level of use and there were instead a range of other ways the police could be contacted, from the telephone to making appointments for home visits by police officers.
However Mr Mundell says this is not good enough, and the Minister’s admission that more than 60 people had visited the small Biggar station in a 20 day period showed that there was a need to keep it open.
Several hundred local people have already signed the local MP’s petition to retain the public counter service at Biggar police station.
The local MP had written to the Justice Secretary asking him to personally intervene and help make the case for retaining the current provisions at the station which serves much of rural Clydesdale.
Mr Mundell said this week “I had hoped that the Scottish Government would come good on the promises they made about protecting rural police resources from centralisation ahead of the single police force for Scotland being introduced. But all we have is the Justice Secretary playing down the significant numbers of local people using Biggar Police Station. That response is very disappointing and, I am afraid, reinforces my original fears that the SNP’s introduction of the new Scottish Police Force would be to the detriment of our rural areas, with resources simply being sucked into the Central Belt.
The local MP has also informed police chiefs of the strong opposition in the local community to these changes. Mr Mundell believes that Police Scotland need to look again at these plans and see what can be done to meet the public’s expectations for the continuation of community policing in the Biggar area.
“I have been out meeting local residents and they are adamant that the proposed closure should not go ahead and are speaking out in their hundreds. Clearly leaving Biggar and the surrounding communities without a walk-in police station makes no sense and these are not the kinds of efficiencies or cost saving measures people are willing to accept.”
Mr Mundell continued: “At some point there has to be a recognition from Police Scotland that there needs to be some additional flexibility in rural areas, because taking away services at this station will leave many people living locally isolated from the police and, in my view, will damage the links between the local police and the community. Common sense tells you that it is unfair and unrealistic to expect victims of crime and members of the public to have to travel all the way to Lanark to report a crime when there is a perfectly good Police Station in the town.
“Their plans to also close surrounding stations will just make matters worse, further damaging the public-police links. And, despite what the Justice Secretary says, it is not just about the number of visits but a symbolic presence.”
He added: “I will continue making the case for Biggar Police Station because, if we don’t speak up for our communities, no one else is going to and we cannot afford to see any further resources sucked out of our communities back into the Central Belt.”