The formation of Scotland’s national police force has been described as a “grand mess” by a senior MSP.
Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie seized on an admission by Chief Constable Sir Stephen House that officers were doing the duties of axed civilian staff on a “daily basis” to attack First Minister Alex Salmond yesterday.
The MSP said: “We can add to the list: police stations being shut to the public, control rooms being closed, Audit Scotland being scathing, chiefs being at loggerheads and the Scottish Police Authority saying that it just does not know where the savings will come from. This grand mess is something that Justice Secretary Kenny MacAskill said was ‘a once-in-a-generation opportunity’.
“Is that not a warning that, the next time they try to sell us something that is a ‘once-in-a-generation opportunity’, people might not believe a word that they say?”
Police Scotland have made no final decisions on closures as part of an SNP government request to save £1.1billion by 2026.
Mr Salmond claimed the Lib Dem leader had tried to take the chief constable’s remarks out of context because he had said that so-called back-filling was not the force’s policy or strategy.
“Most people would regard the record numbers of police officers on the streets and a 39-year low in recorded crime as substantial achievements,” he said. “If people want to look for an alternative to the policies that are being pursued in Scotland, they need only glance at what happens under the control of Willie Rennie’s colleagues south of the border, where England is about to lose almost as many police officers as the record numbers that Scotland now has.”