Councillors call for 'urgent review' of Police Scotland's allocation of resources
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Highland councillors will be asked to back calling for a review into Police Scotland’s allocation of resources amid the lowest officer numbers in the north since 2017 and a rise in crime and traffic accidents.
Councillors Jan McEwan (Wick and East Caithness) and Trish Robertson (Culloden and Ardersier) want council leader Raymond Bremner to write to the First Minister and justice secretary over the matter.
In a motion to be heard at full council on Thursday, the two Lib Dem members want “an urgent review of Police Scotland resources in the Highlands” noting that officer numbers in the Highlands & Island Division are “at the lowest ever since 2017”.
They want Cllr Bremner to highlight the “need for 24/7 police station provision to avoid delays in 101 service to restore public confidence” in the force amid dire crime and road traffic accident figures.
Cllrs McEwan and Robertson also argue that: “The centralisation of Police Scotland has deteriorated the visibility of local Policing provision in the Highland and Islands as a result in failing to meet the increasing needs of the public.”
The motion states: “The number of officers in the dedicated national road policing unit which has bases at Fort William and Dingwall, has fallen from 596 in 2014/15 to 556 in 2021/22, recognises this coincides with a 64.3 per cent increase in Road Traffic Accidents between April 1, 2021 and December 31, 2022.
“The Highland and Islands Division has the highest deaths on the A9 in two decades.”
It goes on: “That for the year ending September 2022 recorded crime in Scotland excluding Coronavirus related regulations, has increased by six per cent.
“Council agrees that the Leader of Highland Council write to the First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Justice requesting an urgent review of Police Scotland resources in the Highlands and in particular the need for 24/7 police station provision to avoid delays in 101 service to restore public confidence.”
