Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Blow as police chief confirms no new jobs for Inverness

Police Scotland Chief Constable Phil Gormley
Police Scotland Chief Constable Phil Gormley

Scotland’s police chief has admitted that no new jobs will be created in Inverness when a national unit opens in the city.

Despite previous promises, Chief Constable Phil Gormley confirmed yesterday that there would be “probably no additional jobs” and that the new National Database Enquiry Unit was likely to be shared with Glasgow.

Plans for the new inquiry centre were unveiled in 2014 when it was revealed that the police control room in the Highland capital would close.

Mr Gormley visited the city yesterday for talks with Highland Council leader Margaret Davidson, who had raised concerns that posts could actually be axed after it emerged that the new unit could be shared with Govan.

After the meeting, the police chief confirmed that the unit was likely to be shared, but insisted that no jobs would be lost, and that 15 officers will go back to policing duties in the north.

He said: “A recommendation will go forward to the police authority this month. In essence what we’re going to put in place is a single national unit probably located in more than one location, Inverness being one of them.”

Asked if the proposal had been watered down from previous promises, Mr Gormley said: “No not at all, what has happened is that we’ve done some very sensible thinking in relation to jobs here, and nobody who has got a job in the present environment will be losing their job.

“There will be probably no additional jobs, but what I’m saying is that there are going to be 15 officers who will be released to go back and police the Highlands, and Inverness in particular.”

However, he also signalled that the force could have handled the issue better, saying: “You can always communicate better and if we can learn lessons from that, as we continue to develop our local approaches to policing, if we can be better then that would be my ambition.”

Mrs Davidson said: “It looks very much, although the final decision won’t be made until the board later this month, that we’ll be retaining the number of jobs in Highlands that we’ve already got but we won’t be getting the increase that we were promised.

“Well paid, secure jobs in the Highlands are not that easy to come by so my disappointment is that’s being whisked away from us again, and at the same time we’re losing our call centre.”