3 days ago
Plans revealed to close police stations in East Dunbartonshire
Police Scotland confirmed today that plans are in place to close Milngavie and Bishopbriggs police stations and dispose of the buildings.
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The force claimed that disposing of the two buildings will reduce ongoing costs associated with retaining underutilised properties.
They went on to add that the move aligns with Police Scotland's intention to create a modern estate that best serves their communities and workforce.
The modern estate comes as back in November 2024, the Scottish Police Authority endorsed Police Scotland's Estates Masterplan, a 10-year programme to create an estate that best serves the police force's communities and workforce.
The exact look and feel of this estate model will be tailored to each area and will take account of local needs and dependencies.
Cops went on to claim that there will be no disruption to policing services because of the decisions to close Milngavie and Bishopbriggs stations as they do not have public access and are used by a small number of community police officers.
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Aidan Higgins, local area commander, said: 'Response officers, those officers who respond to non-emergency and emergency calls to the police, covering the East Dunbartonshire area have been based in Kirkintilloch for over ten years. This means there will be no change in how incidents are responded to or the level of service provided to the community. Community officers for the area will continue to be visible on foot and on cycle patrol. Response officers will continue with daily routine patrolling.
'The disposal of Milngavie and Bishopbriggs forms an important part of our ongoing work to transform the police estate from one which was designed to meet the needs of policing and communities 50 years ago to one that reflects how people access policing services now.
'Our focus is to ensure we have the right presence to enhance visibility and accessibility for members of our communities and provides modern and efficient facilities for our officers and staff.
'This means being available in locations already used by the community. We're continuing to explore co-location points in support of this and officers will be promoting local drop-in sessions which will be publicised via social media channels, community councils and flyers distributed across the community.'
For non-emergencies and general enquiries, members of the public can call 101, and 999 in the event of an emergency. If you are deaf, deafened, hard of hearing or cannot communicate via speech you can utilise the text relay service on 18001101.
