Hussey hits out at ‘unnecessary haste’ of PSNI DCU Shake-Up
West Tyrone UUP Assembly Candidate Derek Hussey today slammed proposals in relation to the creation of new police districts based on the idea of the new 7 super councils envisages by the Review of Public Administration.
In a statement Mr Hussey said,
“The immediate implementation of 8 massive District Command Units (DCU) based on the proposed 7 council structure creates an administration, which, at the present time, will isolate all of our present councils.
“The Assembly will have an impact on this particular review and it is quite clear that political parties within Northern Ireland, with the notable exception of Sinn Fein, favour a model between 11 to 15 councils.
“The PSNI have made it quite clear that, regardless of the views of a new working Assembly, new DCU’s will be created on an 8 model administrative basis.
“Such a rush to create these units, from 1ST April this year, represents unnecessary haste. Surely it makes sense for current DCU’s based on the present 26 existing councils to remain active until a final configuration of Northern Ireland’s councils is established if the Police Service is genuinely interested in local input.”
Concluding he said: “A shadow DCU system could be implemented in October 2008 in line with agreed proposed local authorities. This cash-led streamlining is not necessarily good for the public, for the police of for District Police Partnerships all of whom will be left further away from the senior chain of command.”