Fury as 5 Northern Ireland police stations face axe
There was anger today as five more police stations were earmarked for closure – despite the growing security threat from dissident republican groups
DUP MLA Jonathan Craig said he was “appalled” that even more closures are being suggested while the Policing Board had firmly set its face against a list of initial closures last week.
More than 40 police stations across Northern Ireland are expected to be closed over the next two years. There are 108 police stations dotted across Northern Ireland, and the police say that is simply too many. Among those already ear-marked earlier this year was the Claudy station in Co Londonderry.
“What sort of message does this send out to the community, when the dissident threat is growing expedentially. If we were moving towards a normalised society, and I agree that we have made progress on that, surely access to police stations would be more side open?”
Mr Craig said he had raised the proposals with his party’s Policing Board member the DUP’s Jimmy Spratt and hoped they will be strongly opposed by the Board which will make the final decisions.
The latest stations earmarked for closure are Hillsborough, Ballyclare, Randalstown, Moira and Dunmurry.
A PSNI statement said: “Hillsborough station has had very limited opening hours in the recent past while Randalstown has been closed to the public for quite some time. Ballyclare has had an average of fewer than six callers a day. As a publicly-funded organisation, the PSNI has a responsibility to ensure that all of our resources – officers, staff, equipment and buildings – are used in the best and most effective way to support frontline policing.”
