Highland Lib Dem Scottish Parliament candidate Alan MacRae is calling on the Scottish Government to come clean over the impact centralisation plans would have on policing in Ross & Cromarty.

Mr MacRae said the plans – which were unveiled by Justice Minister Kenny MacAskill last Wednesday ahead of a consultation next month – represented the biggest threat for a generation to community policing in the Highlands. He said a single Scottish police force based in the Central Belt would be unlikely to retain the local area command structure operated by Northern Constabulary – and that Dingwall could be among the biggest victims of the change.

Mr MacRae is renewing calls for serious attention to the idea of a single ‘blue light’* service for the Highlands & Islands, avoiding the potentially disastrous consequences of plans for sweeping centralisation both of police and fire and rescue services.

Commenting, Mr MacRae said:

“It is already very clear that the SNP favour one police force for Scotland that is run from Edinburgh or Glasgow. The Labour Party is in an even bigger hurry to centralise decision-making and jobs.

“While showing a clear preference for centralisation, which will ensure our police answer to his political whim rather than to the communities they serve, the Minister has conspicuously avoided any detail of the £200 million savings he claims can be found.

“It seems certain his plans will mean a new national police headquarters in one of Scotland’s major cities and an expanded bureaucracy there. The Highlands will pay a double price for this re-arranging of the deck-chairs. We will fall far down the priorities of a distant Chief Constable pre-occupied only by urban crime and we will see major job losses from stations like Dingwall. There is a real possibility the Area Command structure for Ross & Cromarty will be removed completely.

“While we wait to see if centralisation will achieve any real savings at all, both administrative staff and front-line police officers in the Highlands will be cut. Remaining officers will be forced to spend less time on the beat and more time on paperwork.

“We know that Highland SNP MSP and Community Safety Minister Fergus Ewing is one of the principal cheerleaders of this move within the Scottish Government. It’s vital that the people of the Highlands & Islands drown out his voice in the coming consultation.

“We can make major savings and keep jobs and decision-making in our region via the creation of a single blue-light service. The Minister has so far given short shrift to that idea because it doesn’t suit his political agenda. The Liberal Democrats will fight hard to make him think again.”

* This refers to the option of having much greater cooperation between all emergency services in the Highlands – see following link: http://www.highland.gov.uk/yourcouncil/news/newsreleases/2011/January/20...

Notes:

· In a statement to the Scottish Parliament on Wednesday, Justice Minister Kenny MacAskill claimed that there was a ‘strong case’ for a single Scottish police force and ‘compelling arguments’ for a single nationwide fire brigade. He failed to set out either argument or to show any detail of where savings would be found.

· Inverness & Nairn MSP Fergus Ewing, who is a junior Minister within Mr MacAskill’s department, publicly backed the move in Friday’s Inverness Courier.

· Grampian Chief Constable Colin McKerracher has said centralisation plans could cost 400 police officers in the North East (roughly one in four).

· An equivalent level of cuts affecting Northern Constabulary would see about 200 front-line officers lost.

· Alan MacRae has written to the Justice Minister urging him to come clean about where the axe will fall if the stated figure of £200m savings from policing is to be achieved.