UNISON is demonstrating at a board meeting where £1bn of cuts to Scottish policing over the next 12 years will be confirmed. UNISON members will be coming to Glasgow from as far afield as Dumfries and Galloway and Aberdeen to show how angry they are about the cuts that will mean local people feel less safe and many police families will be in hardship.
The Scottish Police Authority is today officially confirming the closure of Police Force Control Centres in a “restructuring” across Scotland.
The authority is to close down five control centres over 18-24 months. Dumfries and Galloway in April 2014 will be first to go, with a loss of 34 jobs; then Stirling in December 2014; Glenrothes in March 2015; Pitt Street Glasgow in March 2015; and Aberdeen in December 2015. In total 300 jobs are at risk.
Gerry Crawley, UNISON regional organiser vowed that the union would ”keep hammering the point that these closures are not about making our communities safe. They are budget driven cuts. Scottish Government is cutting £139 million from police budgets between now and 2017 and £1 billion over 12 years.
“This decision to close control centres puts 300 police staff jobs at risk. These are hard working and loyal staff that bring crucial skills to keeping communities safe and they have huge amount of local knowledge which will all be lost.”
Mr Crawley said that the cuts were “just part of the longer term problem. Scottish Government are hiding behind their line that they will keep police numbers. This means police staff will bear the brunt of these cuts even where this may not be the best way forward.
“Cutting jobs does not mean cutting the workload. The tasks still need to be done. More police officers will be back in the police stations rather than on the beat. It is the most expensive option.”
George McIrvine UNISON police staff Scotland branch secretary agreed: “If these cuts go through, the public needs to understand that when they phone 101 they could be speaking to a central control centre hundreds of miles from where they are. This is on the back of the decision to shut or reducing the hours of about 60 of the 214 local police counters. There already is a lot of anger in local communities.”
