Police public counter closure proposals criticised THE case for closing public access to some police stations is undermined by outdated and flawed figures, according to Conservative leader Ruth Davidson. Some details date to 2009 and the future of one public counter is based on survey guesswork, she told Alex Salmond during First Minister's Questions. "For some rural stations, a footfall analysis wasn't done at all - they just guessed," she said, referring to what she called an internal Police Scotland document on the future of counter provision. It's no wonder that this document itself says that the accuracy of the returns submitted and the ability to draw significant and accurate data is caveated due to the varying quality of the returns. In other words, police stations are set to close to the public because of out-of-date information which might never have been right in the first place. The First Minister's case for closing these police counters is based solely on the numbers. Chief Constable Sir Stephen House is considering scrapping public counters at 65 of the country's 214 stations in an attempt to offer ""value for money"" in the new national service. Consultation The four-week consultation on the proposals was announced at the start of the month. Mr Salmond said local MSPs can use their knowledge to help inform the consultation. "That is exactly the purpose of a consultation," he said. But this comes against the reality that we have to suffer huge budget cuts from Westminster, that we have chosen in Scotland to access the front line, that we have more than 1,000 more officers in place in the communities and streets of Scotland than there were when we took office. There has been a dramatic decline in police numbers south of the border. What's declining in Scotland is recorded crime - the lowest crime rate for almost 40 years. All this tells you we can trust Police Scotland to do an effective job on behalf of the communities of this country. 70 police stations in Scotland to close to public