PC opens school-based police ‘surgery’

Nov 11 2011 by Denis Brown, Perthshire Advertiser Friday

COMMUNITY PC Tracy Thomas conducts her first ‘surgery’ at Methven Primary School on Monday.

Now that the shutters have come down on the village’s old police station, she is setting up a mini cop shop at the school where she will liaise with locals about any issues on a regular basis.

Insp Maggie Pettigrew said the venue was smack in the heart of the village and would boost police visibility and access.

“Methven Primary School campus not only holds the school but Methven under fives and the local nursery, and it also has strong links with the wider community,” she said.

Although many believe the village police station closed several years ago, until recently the attached house was occupied by a Perth-based officer and the station used, albeit intermittently, for police work.

But as the now vacant building requires expensive renovation, Tayside Police are selling it on the public market.

And in what is a first, a school is being used as a venue for police surgeries, a move pleasing Perth and Kinross Council, ward councillors and the community council.

Cllr Alan Jack said Insp Pettigrew, head of the North Section, had recently briefed PKC and community councillors.

“She told us that the Methven station only received 82 visits from members of the public a year and it needed at least £10,000 spent on it,” he said.

“So closing it makes sense and I’m quite comfortable with having a community officer based at the school – it’s closer to shops, more houses and the community centre, all in one compact area.”

Cllr Hayton said people might be nostalgic for the old days where almost every little town in Perthshire had its own “bobby” stationed in the community, but the world had moved on.

The first batch of Methven police surgeries take place between 2.30pm and 4.30pm on Monday, November 14, Thursday, November 24, and Friday, December 2.