A huge question mark is hanging over plans to build a new police station in the north-east’s biggest town.
Multimillion pound plans for a new station and custody suite at Catto Way in Peterhead were approved in 2013, after police chiefs warned their existing facilities were “not fit for purpose”.
Their claims came after inspectors concluded prisoners taken to Merchant Street faced a “significant risk” of death in the cramped cells.
But three years on – and with the planning permission for the new site due to expire in just seven days – doubts are mounting that the new £5million station will ever be built.
The complex, which would have been next to the town’s fire station, would have accommodated 50 officers and 20 prisoners in the custody centre.
Last night, fears were raised that the case for the station at Peterhead had been superseded by Fraserburgh’s new £444,000 cell block, as prisoners are simply transferred there.
But police insisted they were still looking for a “solution” to the Peterhead problem and are hopeful of a “positive” outcome.
A spokeswoman added: “We must also take into account the financial savings to be delivered by Police Scotland.”
North-east Labour MSP Lewis Macdonald said if the force allowed planning permission to expire, it would be another example of changes being made “in the wrong direction”.
“The opportunity for the police to do something positive and build a fit for purpose station in Peterhead appears to have been missed,” he said. “They have effectively thrown this permission away. If it wasn’t fit for purpose then, it’s not fit for purpose now.”
Councillor Alan Buchan – who backed the need for a new facility but raised doubts about the Catto Way site – said the creation of the custody block in Fraserburgh effectively scrapped the need for one in Peterhead too.
“I can’t see them spending millions on a new station at Catto Way,” he added. “The cells have gone and will never come back.”
Liberal Democrat justice spokeswoman Alison McInnes has said she was not “surprised” the police station’s permission was due to expire, and called for a need to return to “community-based policing”.
She added: “One of the ways to do that is to make sure the resources and facilities on the ground are up to scratch.”
But local SNP MSP Stewart Stevenson defended the police force last night, and said Mrs McInnes had to listen to the officers on the ground.
He said: “They tell me that they now have access to more resources to help them carry out their duties which they didn’t have when we had eight separate forces with their own running costs.
“The whole point of police reform was to safeguard frontline services and that’s exactly what has happened.”
Police chiefs last night insisted they were working to improve facilities in Peterhead.
A Police Scotland spokeswoman said: “It is fundamental that policing services remain strongly rooted in, and responsive to, their local communities.
“It is therefore essential that Police Scotland’s property portfolio supports and enables police resources to be used in a manner which supports efficient and effective service delivery.”
She said that policy must reflect the changing “demands” of policing the north-east.
“We continue to work closely with other agencies and partners in the Peterhead area to identify the best solution for collective accommodation needs and to identify and deliver a service which better meet people’s needs.”
In recent months police chiefs in Peterhead have teamed up with Aberdeenshire Council to open a desk in the local authority’s new north-east headquarters at Buchan House.
The counter is staffed weekdays from 8.30am to 5.00pm.
It is understood that accommodating more officers in the modern St Peter Street facility is an alternative option to building a replacement police station.