Duimfries and Galloway Council Leader, Ronnie Nicholson, has said that the publication of a damning report on Police call handling vindicates the local campaign that was run to save the Police control room in Dumfries.
The report by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary Scotland (HMICS) contains 30 recommendations for improvement and says no more control rooms should be shut until existing arrangements are stabilised.
Council Leader, Ronnie Nicholson, said, “When it was announced that local control rooms would be closed, Dumfries and Galloway was the first to face the consequences, removing the jobs of local people and casting aside years of local knowledge , without any meaningful consultation at the time. What makes me angry is this damning report completely vindicates that campaign against closing Dumfries control room at the time and highlights some of the key issues with a centralised control room which I spoke out against as soon as the closure was announced. Police Scotland and the Scottish Government were warned there would be a major deterioration of service but it is no consolation for those who lost their jobs or local people now facing poor service that we can say “we told you so”.
“Police Scotland has achieved savings of over £1.8 million a year in staff costs but this has been cancelled out by increased police officer and overtime costs. So, they haven’t actually achieved meaningful savings.
“The report also states that the Scottish Government is providing an additional £1.4 million to take on more staff. Between 70 and 75 new members of staff are being employed so that the Aberdeen and Inverness control rooms remain open until future operations are ready. This is more jobs for the other parts of Scotland and, once again, Dumfries and Galloway is losing out.
“Last April, the Scottish Government committed to a new National Centre for Resilience to be based in Dumfries. 18 months on and we have seen little progress and the number of jobs being considered is a fraction of what we need. We need the Scottish Government to start delivering for the people of this region and giving Dumfries and Galloway our fair share.
“I am committed to securing quality jobs and building our local economy which suffers from the lowest average wage in mainland Scotland. Following local job losses through more centralisation, the whole Council is committed to the fair distribution of civil service jobs in our region. The Government has to stop continuing to ignore our region and redirect jobs to our local community. I will fight to bring jobs to our region.”
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