Police Scotland looking at sites for new Greenock station

There is concern that the current police office is not up to modern standards after the Telegraph revealed in March last year that that the decades-old building requires at least £6M worth of upgrades.

Renfrewshire and Inverclyde divisional commander, Chief Superintendent Laura Waddell, has told councillors that dealing with the station on Rue End Street is a top priority.

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But the district's most senior officer has assured elected members that there is no prospect of the area being left without a police HQ.

CS Waddell told Inverclyde's Police and Fire Scrutiny Panel: "As you know our estate isn't very great in some areas across Scotland and we've been working hard across Scotland to fix that.

"Greenock is next on the list. It's actively being looked at right now, but it will not move outwith the general area.

"We've agreed that already.

"We've been looking at various sites across Greenock in terms of suitability, there is nothing in place as of yet in terms of anything but we're speaking with the council in relation to potential future sites.

"The office we have in Greenock at the moment was built I think in the 60s, it's no longer what we need for a modern police station so we need to find something better that would work both for our officers but also for our communities."

Councillor Drew McKenzie noted that the local fire service had also faced issues with the condition of its estate and asked if there had been any communication between the two services about the possibility of a 'joined-up' approach to a new facility.

CS Waddell replied: "[Scottish Fire and Rescue Service area commander] David [McCarrey] and I spoke about that at a recent catch-up and how great it would be to have a hub like that.

"That's certainly also on the agenda, there is nothing off the agenda at the moment while we do the discovery phase.

"We can see real benefits of even just putting one police officer into the fiscal's office, that police officer going and being able to have conversation rather than an email being sent or a phone call being made.

"That collaboration of being able to speak to people and actually do our work jointly and much more efficiently, we can all see the benefits of that."

Concerns about the availability of resources and funding for a possible replacement police station were raised by council leader Stephen McCabe.

However, he also added that the council could have a role to play in helping them secure a new site.

Councillor McCabe said: "They've been talking about replacing Greenock Police Station since I was a boy and certainly as long as I've been a councillor. The challenge has always been the resources.

"I don't get a sense that capital funding is any more available today than it was ten years ago, it's probably less available and we're seeing similar pressures across the range of the Scottish public service — our local college struggling to get a resources to build a new campus, etcetera.

"I would hope there's a potential for the blue light services to engage with each other, but engage potentially the council as well, because we in a sense do have access to funding mechanisms that are not available to other public services.

"In terms of other areas, Livingston is an example of a public complex which was built by the council but leased to other partners.

"It's something that I think we need a bit of imagination for, not just around the site and the location, but potentially how we can fund it."