Police Scotland has announced plans to consult and engage the public on proposals to close a number of properties across the country, including its vacant buildings in Tarbert and Dalmally.
The service has published details of 29 police stations and other buildings which it says are now surplus to requirements, with officers and staff being moved to other locations.
Of these buildings three are already vacant and 14 others have no public access.
The list includes two ‘”surplus” buildings in Argyll, Police Scotland’s Tarbert Office, which its says has lain vacant for more than five years with officers deployed from Lochgilphead, and its vacant building in Dalmally.
The force said of the Dalmally changes: “The building is a small police house/station (one police officer), the previous officer has moved out and this area will be resourced from Oban Police Station.”
So far only two police offices are earmarked for closure in the Highlands and Islands, in Muir of Ord and Lairg.
In addition, Police Scotland will carry out consultation and engagement on a further 16 properties, which are all already vacant or are plots of land with no buildings. As such there is no public access to these properties. Plans to close a further 14 properties will be brought forward at a later date.
As part of the review, local divisional commanders have been asked to identify where they would want to locate their resources to better meet the demands of 21st century policing and to highlight any buildings in their areas that are underused, surplus to requirements or where there could be opportunities to rationalise buildings or co-locate with partners.
Deputy Chief Constable, Malcolm Graham, said: “Our estate needs to be fit for 21st- century policing, putting service enhancement, visibility, and engagement at the heart of the communities we serve.
“Our presence in communities is not defined by buildings but by the officers and staff who work there, and we have already introduced technology that enables our officers to remain in local areas, reducing the need for them to return to police stations to deal with paperwork.
“We are determined to continue to improve our visibility and accessibility, as well as to bring partners together to deliver services in the most efficient and effective way.
“The buildings in which our officers and staff work need to be safe, functional spaces, and they need to be sustainable and adaptable enough to meet changing public expectations and the changing nature of policing.”
He added: “Police Scotland inherited a very large and ageing estate, much of which was not fit for purpose, with high maintenance costs and environmental inefficiencies.
“The locations of many inherited buildings no longer meet the requirements of local communities and in some cases the organisation is currently maintaining multiple buildings in the same geographic area, less than five miles apart.
“Some of the buildings are just a few miles apart, others are used by only a handful of police officers or staff and have no public access, while many are rarely visited by a member of the public.
“For the majority of properties, the proposed moves will be an average of four miles from their current location.
“Local communities will therefore continue to receive the same high level of service from officers, and still from within their local area.
“We understand and are sensitive to community concerns around changes involving police buildings and as we bring forward proposals we wish to communicate our proposals to the public and our staff and seek their feedback. Please do view our plans and let us know your thoughts.”
The financial savings of these property disposals would be re-invested into providing policing services.
The police staff trade union UNISON said the plans to sell off a range of buildings will make policing “more remote and less accessible”.
Many of the properties are police stations which have been closed in recent years as policing has been centralised, the union said.
“Police staff in Scotland, are already facing job losses through a proposed voluntary redundancy scheme, now many of them will see their job moved as Police Scotland further retracts from being accessible to the public.”
David Malcolm, branch secretary, UNISON Police Scotland, said “No one seriously thinks that this is about improving services – it is a cost cutting measure. It might deliver balanced books, but it won’t deliver better policing.
“These measures themselves will shape the demand from the public and put pressure on already stretched resources in the police contact centre and control rooms as more communities see their police offices taken away.
“We agree with Police Scotland that the Police estate is in a mess – but the way to sort that is to make the case for long term investment, not short term asset stripping.”
To review the proposals and have your say visit Police Scotland’s engagement hub.