POLICE Scotland has been accused of withholding 'crucial' information to prevent it from being used to undermine their case for closing Greenock Police Station.

Bosses have rebuffed a series of freedom of information requests seeking detail regarding how often the station’s custody cells are used, according to Alba Party general secretary Chris McEleny.

The former Gourock councillor asked the force a raft of questions, which included enquiries about the number of people arrested and taken to the station to be charged, and the number of people held in custody there.

Mr McEleny said his requests were knocked back by police using ‘technical definitions’ of what it means to be under arrest or held in custody and believes that this was done to keep the data under wraps.

He has since sent a follow-up request for information and claims that police have failed to respond to this enquiry within the 20 working day period mandated by freedom of information (FOI) laws.

Greenock Telegraph: Chris McEleny

Mr McEleny told the Telegraph: “Police Scotland announced the plan to close Greenock Police Station without providing any information on the alternatives and now it is apparent that they are refusing to reveal vital information on the usage of Greenock Police Station whilst the consultation on its closure remains open.

“If there are no custody cells in Greenock, two officers will be required to travel from the west of Inverclyde to Saltcoats or from Greenock and Port Glasgow to Govan each time someone has to be placed in custody.

“On a weeknight there are around six police offers on duty in Greenock.

“This means that if three people need to be put in custody then the whole of Inverclyde would be left without a police presence for several hours.

“This is completely unacceptable, and it is why we need this key information.

“I am therefore calling on Scotland’s new Chief Constable Jo Farrell to intervene and establish why her staff are concealing information that is vital to proving beyond doubt that Greenock must have a police station with, at the very least, the same custody facilities and staffing levels that it currently has.”

Greenock Telegraph:

Mr McEleny's original freedom of information request contained seven questions for police, with the police’s FOI team providing responses for two of them.

Questions about the number of people arrested and taken to the station to be charged, the number of people held in custody, the number of officers based at the station and the number of police officers responding to emergency calls who were based in the station when the call was received were rejected on the grounds that the information was not held.

Two questions about the number of officers based at the station and the number of shifts worker by police at the station were deemed exempt from FOI legislation.

A further two of questions, which related to the number of times officers were required to attend Greenock Sheriff Court as part of their duty, were answered.

Police advised Mr McEleny that between December 13 2022 to December 13 2023 there were 4,976 citations recorded at Greenock Police Station.

Of these 2,063 were subsequently countermanded, leaving a total of 2,913 citations.

Police Scotland did not respond the to the Telegraph's request for comment.