UNISON has condemned “budget-driven” plans to close half of Scotland’s police control centres, reducing the number from 10 to five and putting 300 jobs at risk.
“This is a terrible day for all police staff,” said UNISON Scotland regional orgaiser Gerry Crawley after Police Scotland announced plans to close five control centres over 18-14 months, starting this spring.
Dumfries and Galloway is marked down to close April 2014, Stirling in December 2014, Glenrothes in March 2015, Pitt Street Glasgow in March 2015 and Aberdeen in December 2015.
This will leave five remaining police control centres – in Dundee, Edinburgh, Motherwell, Inverness and Govan, Glasgow – to cover the whole country.
“These closures are not about making our communities safe,” say Mr Crawley. “They are budget-driven cuts. The Scottish government is cutting £139m from police budgets between now and 2017 and £1bn over 12 years.
“Closing these control centres puts 300 jobs at risk,” he added, but the union is also “concerned that 999 and 101 services will be less responsive, and local communities, having lost police stations across the country, will see even more local cuts.
“Police Scotland will lose a lot local knowledge,” added Mr Crawley.
Police Scotland is also shutting about 60 of the 214 local police counters.
“We were told that most people contact the police control centres by phone, on the new 101 number,” noted Mr Crawley, adding that the centres deal with more than 280,000 calls a month.
“After telling us what a good job police control centres do, they now tell us they need to shut them to save money. They cannot have it both ways.
“This is further centralisation. Local people will feel less safe and many families will be in hardship.”
With 300 jobs at risk, UNISON said that members are “very upset and angry” at the news.
“Behind every statistic is a family pushed into stress and hard times,” said Mr Crawley.
“The reality of these closures is harder up families and communities losing local services. Our members have been loyal and hard working and are very experienced.
“They want to help keep their communities safe – not be claiming benefits and struggling to make ends meet.”
Under the plans, the ratio of police officers to police staff will be 45% to 55%, which UNISON says is the wrong balance.
It points out that staff are more cost effective than officers for many jobs and also contribute vital skills and knowledge to keeping communities safe.
