PSNI urged not to axe area’s last police base

29 February 2012 - by JOANNE FLEMING

OBJECTORS to the potential closure of Ballynahinch and Saintfield police stations have said it is unacceptable for the Rowallane area to be left without a physical police presence.

The Ballynahinch station’s future was debated at a public consultation meeting in the town on Tuesday and Saintfield’s future was discussed at Thursday’s meeting of Down District Policing Partnership.

Both are being considered for closure as part of a PSNI cost cutting plan that could see 40 per cent of police stations across Northern Ireland close.

At the meetings Chief Inspector Deirdre Bones said that it would cost £498,927 over the next ten years to keep Ballynahinch station open, and £605.937 to keep Saintfield’s base open.

She said both stations had ceased being 24 response stations since July 2010 and were no longer open to the public.

While Ballynahinch has been used as a base for the Neighbourhood Policing Team, it emerged Saintfield has been effectively closed since 2010.

Producing evidence of crime decreases in both towns over the past five years, Ms. Bones argued police should be “in the community, not in underused buildings”, and said they were required to make savings due to Treasury budget cuts.

“I know that the issue of possible police station closures is often very emotional,” she said. “People are reassured by the presence of police stations in their towns or villages.”

At the Ballynahinch meeting councillor Mickey Coogan argued it was “not a

huge amount of money” to keep the

town’s station open when the costs of bringing an alternative mobile police station into the area and increased transport costs between Downpatrick and Ballynahinch were considered.

“We need to go back and change what services we are providing at Ballynahinch station,” he said. “It looks suspiciously like a box ticking exercise — going back to the Policing Board and saying ‘we are making savings’.

“We should be looking more at the cost of transferring prisoners to the custody suite in Bangor. How many officers are being taken out of the district for this?”

With the decision taken to close Comber, Crossgar, Killyleagh, Ardglass and Castlewellan stations in recent years, objectors also pointed to Ballynahinch’s strategic position within the centre of Down.

“If Saintfield and Comber and Killyleagh are going there is definitely a need to keep Ballynahinch,” said DUP councillor Garth Craig. “It is right bang in the centre of that large rural community.”

UUP councillor Walter Lyons pointed out they were not being presented with the alternative of extra police officers in exchange for the station closing.

At Thursday’s DPP meeting, objections to Saintfield’s closure centred on the fact that if Ballynahinch were to close there would be no police base at all in Rowallane.

DUP councillor Billy Walker dismissed the consultation process as a “paper exercise”, while SDLP councillor Maria McCarthy said police were sending out a message that they were “closed” to local residents.

Sinn Fein councillor, Liam Johnston, told objectors, however, to “get real”.

“We do not need a police station,” he said. “Buildings do not save lives.”

Councillor Cadogan Enright also pointed out that areas such as Ardglass and Castlewellan had survived the closure of their police stations.

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