LIBERAL Democrat candidates are leading calls to improve local policing after a spate of housebreakings in the area.

Prospective Peebles Liberal Democrat councillors Kris Chapman (Tweeddale West) and Amanda Kubie (Tweeddale East) are calling on Police Scotland to reverse the decline in local policing that they claim has fallen since the creation of a single centralized force.

Kris Chapman, Scottish Liberal Democrats candidate for Tweeddale West, said: “Rather than electing apologists for a flawed centralised force that is not delivering for the people of Peebles, voters in May need to ensure Liberal Democrats are elected to the council.

"Liberal Democrat MSPs are already effectively challenging Police Scotland failures at the national level, so it is Liberal Democrats who will be best placed to provide that robust challenge from a local perspective.” 

Amanda Kubie, Scottish Liberal Democrats candidate for Tweeddale East added: “We’ve had a spate of break-ins and attempted break-ins in and around Peebles recently. It’s clear that people are registering a lack of response and as a result are feeling vulnerable. This is not good enough. If elected in May we will be pushing hard to have local policing returned to the levels we had prior to the establishment of Police Scotland.”

Liberal Democrats have been at forefront of opposing the damaging police centralization agenda, which has led to 300 front-line officers being taken off the streets, with Liberal Democrat MSPs recently calling for fundamental reform of Police Scotland as the national force consults on a strategy to guide it through to the mid-2020s.

Retired Borders police inspector Harry Scott, talked recently at the Scottish Borders Police, Fire and Safer Communities Board, and outlined how police coverage has been seriously diluted since the establishment of Police Scotland. Harry called on councillors to robustly challenge the centralised force.