Station Closures

A chief superintendent of the Northern Ireland police constabulary claims that Ballyclare police station "has been attended by an average of fewer than six callers a day". Following that logic, if the station is closed down, there shall be no callers at all.

If the general public knows that a station has limited and inconvenient opening hours, they shan't have the confidence to pay it a visit.

What on earth are these so-called representatives on the police Authority - they call themselves the policing board - doing? How can it be in the interests of the general public for any police station to close? What sort of police service is that?

Must we be satisfied with a couple of young, inexperienced coppers driving through a village or town in their comfortable car, hardly stopping for anything except a takeaway?

If they have stooped down to the level where they want to close down police stations, they obviously require more constables.

Enter the Northern Ireland Office, their paymaster. If the NIO - and the Brown Government, for that matter - really wished to save money, they could easily disband a few dozen of their precious quangos and commissions. I have a few prominent ones in mind, as I write.

I propose that more police officers be employed; the current police stations be re-opened and fully active twenty-four hours a day; that there must be a presence in villages like Strangford and Dundrum, where the stations closed down many years ago.

Despite what the do-gooder liberals, thugs and anti-social classes may demand, there are places where a police station helps to maintain a presence, gives comfort to law-abiding citizens, and acts as a deterrent to felons.

Beginning at the top tier, the NIO; chief police officers and their mouth-pieces; Police Authority; and the so-called policing partnerships are all doing a grave disservice to the people of Northern Ireland if they believe that the closure of more police stations is the answer.