Yesterday, the Chair of West End Community Council, Peter Menzies, and I met with senior Police Scotland representatives to hand in a petition from 300 West End residents to make the case to retain Ryehill Police Station at the Pennycook Lane/Perth Road junction.
We met with two senior police officers, Superintendent Andrew Todd and Chief Inspector Gary Ogilvie, and stressed that the community is strongly of the view that the Ryehill Police Office is a crucial resource in the West End and closing it would be highly detrimental.
Peter and I made the point to Police Scotland that a possible way of ensuring that the police office can remain open is to consider additional uses for it through shared use with partner organisations. That way, the station could continue as a police office but could also be used as a community base for other services, possibly local authority or third sector.
At the meeting, Police Scotland indicated it is prepared to look into the viability of this and while such a proposal can be fully investigated and a long-term solution is developed, it further committed to keeping the Police Office open whilst this proposal is being fully considered.
We are hopeful that a long-term solution can now be found to ensure the Ryehill Police Station is retained.