The Scottish Police Authority Accused Of Breaking Assurances To People Of The Highlands
5th September 2017
Chair of Badenoch and Strathspey Area Committee questions Police Control Room decisions
Chair of the Council's Badenoch and Strathspey Area Committee, Cllr Bill Lobban (Independent), has questioned Police Scotland's proposals for closing the Inverness Control Room and establishing two National Database Enquiry Units (NDEUs).
His comments follow a presentation by Police Scotland to members at the local Committee today, Tuesday 5 September.
Councillor Lobban said: "The Highland Council was promised a National Database Enquiry Unit in Inverness to serve the whole of Scotland. This was part and parcel of the decision to close the Inverness Control Centre. Proposals for an alternative model which spreads the work between two centres in Govan and Inverness have been developed without proper consultation and public engagement. The business case for this remains a secret and indeed the Leader of the Council has been forced to submit an FOI to request a copy of this.
"The Scottish Police Authority (SPA) is to be asked to approve this model later in September without any transparent scrutiny of the various options and the rationale. It would be an outrage and a travesty of governance and trust to allow this two-centre model to go ahead, breaking all the previous assurances made to the people of the Highlands."
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