BY AILEEN MURPHY
The period of public consultation between the police and residents in four villages in Fermanagh where it is recommended the police station should be closed, continued until Thursday.
And there was one common theme running through all four meetings in Kesh, Belcoo, Belleek, and Newtownbutler: that people in each of the villages are realistic enough to realise economically the current police stations are not a viable option, but they are all keen to ensure a police presence is retained in each of their areas.
In Newtownbutler in particular the need for police on the streets was illustrated when a hoax bomb warning was declared in the community centre shortly before the start of the public meeting on Thursday night.
However, the public were not deterred, and after the police declared the area safe, around 50 people attended the meeting. On the previous night in Belcoo, 17 people turned out and on Tuesday, night 13 came to Belleek.
The crowd in Newtownbutler heard Chief Superintendent Michael Skuce explain that due to restraints in the number of police officers now available, and financial restrictions on his budget, he was recommending the closure of these four stations in Fermanagh, leaving only, Enniskillen, Irvinestown and Lisnaskea with a police base.
He explained there had been 72 crimes per year over the last eight years in Newtownbutler, with 24 people being killed or seriously injured over the same period. And he outlined the projected cost of keeping Newtownbutler station open for the next 10 years at £1,513,423.
Mr Skuce felt resources could be better utilised if he was able to provide more police on beat patrols in the area, backed up by the mobile police station visiting the village, rather than maintaining the huge fortified site in Newtownbutler which few people had the need to visit.
Mandy Egerton, an independent member of Fermanagh District Policing Partnership told the panel she felt the times and availability of police in the area needed to be better publicised on a local level, in shops and community centres etc. This, she suggested would not only let people know when they could meet with police, but would also provide a level of reassurance to people living in the town that they still had some level of protection.
Next came some debate from members of the public about a recent spate of attacks on the Church of Ireland in Newtownbutler, with some people labelling the attacks as 'sectarian', while others claimed they were simply acts of vandalism.
In response Chief Superintendent Skuce explained any attack like this was a crime, and people wanted to see it solved. However, he reiterated his belief more police on the street would be more effective at dealing with criminal activity than a huge building which, he stated, 'is not fit for purpose'.
DUP Assembly member Arlene Foster said Newtownbutler had been here before, back in 2006 when the station had been earmarked for closure.
"At that time, we managed to persuade them we should keep it. After that, there seemed to be no police presence in the station and that is a grave disappointment. If it costs such an amount and covers such a large area: why not give some consideration to selling off some of the land and keeping a smaller station in the village.
"There is an small Protestant community here who are quite isolated and they have been through a lot. We know what has happened here recently, and people might see this as a withdrawal."
Mr Skuce told her that this had been a reoccurring theme at the meetings in the week and he assured her it was, 'definitely an option we are prepared to consider'.
Ulster Unionist Councillor Harold Andrews supported this suggestion.
He said: "There were 3,500 police officers here before the Troubles and we had a few in every barracks in all the towns and villages. People knew their police and they knew the people. Now we have the stations closing and the police are driving around in cars and they don't know anyone.
"There are over 800 Garda stations in the Republic of Ireland, why can't we have that here," he urged. "That one-to-one contact has been lost. When we don't know the police personally, the information isn't flowing."
But, Chief Superintendent Skuce countered: "That is the pace of life we are living in. People want to contact the police via their mobile phones.
"I would love to have a police officer living in a house here with a station next door. That's true policing. But, to do that we need to encourage local people to join the police and come back and serve the community."
He also explained he had been in contact with his counterparts in the Republic of Ireland and was aware they were facing difficulty maintaining the up-keep of so many stations.
A number of local people explained took they opportunity to tell police they had experienced less that acceptable levels of service from them.
Declan McCabe a shop-owner in the town explained he had been broken into twice recently and on the second occasion he found there were no police available: "I pay substantial rates, which pay your wages, and when I made the phone call I was told they couldn't guarantee somebody being out that day. That is an appalling level of service."
Chief Inspector Alywin Barton said police were aware of the level of anti-social behaviour in the town over the last few months. The Police were trying to deal with it.
He told Mr McCabe: "I could give you plenty of reasons why the response was poor, but they would all sound like excuses. You made that call expecting it to be answered, it wasn't and that's not good enough.
One lady in the crowd put forward an unexpected proposal. She told the panel: "I have a local fella who does CCTV. He says he will take the CCTV cameras off the police station and install them closer to the town. He will do this free of charge, and will also provide additional cameras if necessary to help catch people."
Chief Superintendent Skuce said this was a very interesting proposal, and asked that these details be forwarded to him in writing.
However, a man in the crowd explained previously there had been a community association established in Newtownbutler who had tried to work with the police to target crime in the town. He said this had fallen apart because of lack of support from the town, and he urged people of the need for the community to work together for the good of the town.
This was reiterated by Mr Skuce who appealed for people to play their part in being vigilant and reporting crime.
