The Chief Constable of Scotland’s new single police force has spoken in a bid to dismiss fears that the new body will be Central Belt-centric.
Speaking after Friday’s Scottish Police Authority (SPA) board meeting, which was held in Dundee, Stephen House told The Courier the new Police Scotland would fundamentally be a “locally-delivered” service.
He said talk of a Strathclyde takeover was “rubbish”.
“People expected it to be, it isn’t and people need to move on,” he said.
“The current headquarters are in Tulliallan. One of the deputies is from London and two from Lothian and Borders.”
“I think you’ve got a situation where the cops are moving on. They are keen to get on with the new organisation and new world.”
However, Mr House said any concern that the new force would be concentrated in the Central Belt was “natural”.
Dundee and Perth had planned to join forces in a bid to bring the headquarters of the new single force to Courier Country with civic leaders trying to exploit fears over the potential for a “Strathclyde-centric” force.
Mr House sought to reassure people that local policing was at the heart of the new force.
“Each ward will have a policing plan,” he said.
“We’re not moving any community cops around. There will be 14 territorial divisions around the country. This is fundamentally a locally-delivered service.”
Mr House said he was confident the new force was “operationally ready” for ‘day one’ of the new force on April 1. Everything’s in place that needs to be in place to keep the service going,” he said.
“We want the public to generally not notice a difference. We want them to still see patrolling police officers and get a response to 999 calls.
“I think the changes will be more long-term. The budget will reduce and we need to become more efficient.
“There are a great many things that continue to need to be worked on,” he went on. We see in the years ahead great changes for the police force.”
Mr House’s report to the board stated the existing Command and Control structure across Scotland will remain in place for day one and a service overview function has been developed which provides a daily report of significant incidents of note from across the country over the previous 24-hour period.
The board will meet again on March 28. It will be their last meeting before the new force comes into effect.