Ministers urged to act after police announce front-desk closures at 11 stations

The Stormont justice and finance ministers have been urged to act after the police service announced plans to close enquiry offices at 11 stations.

The move, that will see four police stations in Belfast affected, as well as stations across the region, has been blamed on financial and resource pressures.

The stations affected are Lisburn Road, Strand Town, Tennent Street and Woodbourne in Belfast, as well as Bangor, Banbridge, Magherafelt, Dungannon, Lisnaskea, Waterside and Newtownabbey.

The inquiry office closures were likely to take place within three months, and were said to be designed to make a significant financial saving as well as maximise the availability of officers for critical service provision within communities.

Assistant Chief Constable Bobby Singleton said the decision was taken following an “extensive review, which included analysis of the volume and type of demand in enquiry offices”.“This review concluded that against the backdrop of wider resource challenges, the current service is neither sustainable nor effective,” he said.

Independent North Down MLA Alex Easton and UUP Fermanagh and South Tyrone MLA Tom Elliott raised concerns about the plan during a sitting of the Assembly on Tuesday.

Mr Easton urged Justice Minister Naomi Long to contact Finance Minister Caoimhe Archibald, and raise the issue with the Executive.

He said North Down was impacted by the closure of Donaghadee police station in 2012 and the previous closure of the enquiry office at Holywood police station.Mr Easton described a “deeply worrying situation” and said he believed closing the enquiry offices would be a “disaster for policing right across Northern Ireland”.“

All of this is happening to save £400,000. In the scheme of things, £400,000 isn’t a huge amount of money to keep all these enquiry offices open so I would implore the Justice Minister to contact the Finance Minister and to raise this issue at the Northern Ireland Executive, because I believe this would be a disaster for policing right across Northern Ireland,” he told MLAs.

Mr Elliott told MLAs the move was a “huge blow of confidence in policing”.

He said it left only one enquiry office across the entire of Fermanagh and South Tyrone.He described the station in Dungannon as “extremely busy”, while the Lisnaskea station “serves a huge rural area around that south and east Fermanagh area”.“

It’s going to be a considerable distance for those people to travel from Roslea and the edges of Newtownbutler and Derrylin to go to Enniskillen enquiry office which is obviously not open all the time either,” he said.

“I think it’s a huge blow to public confidence in policing.”

Want a quick and expert briefing on the biggest news stories? Listen to our latest podcasts to find out What You Need To Know.