24th January 2007
Nuclear Waste of Police on Agenda with Rae
Police officers being taken out of
Inverclyde to deal with the year-long Faslane blockade will be top of Duncan
McNeil MSP’s agenda when he and colleagues from the Strathclyde area meet
Chief Constable of Strathclyde Police, Sir Willie Rae QPM, at the Scottish
Parliament tonight (Wednesday 24th January 2007).
Mr
McNeil is worried that the Faslane 365 protest is putting his Greenock and
Inverclyde constituents at risk and has already voiced his concerns to local
Divisional Commander, Chief Superintendent Johnny Gwynne.
In addition to seeking assurances from Chief Superintendent Gwynne that
community safety will not suffer as a result of the demands the blockade is
placing on local policing, he has tabled a number of Parliamentary Questions to
the Justice Minister, asking how many police officers are being removed from the
community and at what cost.
Speaking
ahead of the meeting, Mr McNeil said:
“Clearly,
legitimate protest and dissent is a welcome and essential part of the political
process in any democracy. But these
hard-won freedoms do not include the right to put our community at risk.
Our rights to be safe from crime are just as important as the
protestors’ rights to demonstrate – although they arrogantly assume that our
interests should automatically take second place.
“The
Faslane 365 protest is taking valuable officers off our streets and sending them
up to the base, just to be extras in a political photo-shoot.
There are still nearly 250 days of this year-long protest left –
that’s 250 more days of wasted police time and resources; 250 days of fewer
police on our streets.
“I
have questioned the Executive and our local Divisional Commander on how many
officers are being removed from Inverclyde and how much this is all costing.
And I am looking forward to discussing with Sir Willie what steps he, as
the most senior officer in Strathclyde, can take to reduce the risks to which
the protestors are exposing us.”
On
10th January 2007, Mr McNeil wrote to Renfrewshire and Inverclyde Divisional
Commander, Chief Superintendent Johnny Gwynne, seeking information on:
How
many of the 189 reported police officers on duty at the Faslane protest on
8th January were from Renfrewshire and Inverclyde Division and, of those,
how many were based in Inverclyde;
How
it can be ensured that local crime issues will not be neglected over the
course of the year-long Faslane 365 protest; and
How
many officers, and at what cost, did he anticipate being forced to allocate
from the division as a whole and Greenock and Inverclyde in particular to
the Faslane protest over the course of the year.
S2W-30925
Mr Duncan McNeil: To ask the Scottish Executive how many police officers
were assigned to cover the protest at HM Naval Base Clyde, at Faslane, on 8
January 2007, broken down by (a) police division and (b) rank.
S2W-30926
Mr Duncan McNeil: To ask the Scottish Executive how much it cost to provide
police officers to cover the protest at HM Naval Base Clyde, at Faslane, on
8 January 2007, also broken down by police division.
S2W-30927
Mr Duncan McNeil: To ask the Scottish Executive how many police officers and
civilian staff were involved in the operation at HM Naval Base Clyde, at
Faslane, on 8 January 2007, including those involved in the processing of
those arrested, and what the overall cost was.
S2W-30928
Mr Duncan McNeil: To ask the Scottish Executive what the current estimated
total monetary and staff cost is of policing the Faslane 365 protest, based
on the stated intention of disruptive protests on a daily basis until 30
September 2007, broken down by police division where applicable.
ENDS
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