Highland Council’s anger with the police has intensified, with a statement last night that it had “resorted” to using Freedom of Information legislation to establish facts.
Council leader Margaret Davidson is frustrated not to have received the force’s “business case” for dividing a new National Database Enquiry Unit (NDEU) between Inverness and Govan, on the banks of the River Clyde.
Councillors were angered by the switch of the Highland police control room to Dundee as part of the Scottish Government’s latest centralisation. They believed Inverness was promised the compensation of being the sole host of the new unit.
Officially, an announcement on location is due from the Scottish Police Authority (SPA) next month.
Speaking last night, councillor Davidson said: “I’m genuinely disappointed that I’ve had to resort to this.
“I don’t believe the business case is a state secret or in any way compromising to national security. It should be publicly available in the interests of transparency in decision making.
“I’ve been allowed to briefly view a confidential copy during a meeting but was not permitted to take it away to study the options in detail.
“This is not the way to conduct business in the public interest.”
She arged that it was unclear if the SPA board would receive a copy of the full business case in order to consider the decision in public and hold Police Scotland to account.
In May, a report from Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary in Scotland criticised the SPA for holding committees in private and restricting access to reports.
Mrs Davidson questioned whether Police Scotland or the SPA had “taken any notice of this criticism.”
She added: “I’d suggest this is partly why the SPA is in such a woeful state.”
In June, Assistant Chief Constable John Hawkins told the SPA board that the force remained committed to the creation of an NDEU facility in Inverness.
A spokeswoman for the SPA (Scottish Police Authority) said: “We expect to consider detailed proposals related to the next phase of modernisation including the NDEU at our next scheduled public board meeting on September 28 in Inverness.”