MSP SAYS REGION HAS BEEN ‘CONNED’ OVER NATIONAL RESILIENCE CENTRE

Elaine Murray has accused the Scottish Government  of “conning” the people of Dumfries & Galloway following a recent announcement that the National Centre of Resilience to be established in Dumfries will only create 2 new jobs in the region, and will only be funded for one year.

The establishment of the centre was initially announced in August 2014, following the closure of the Dumfries Police Control Room. This was followed by the closure of the Dumfries Fire Control Room, resulting in a total of 46 call handling jobs lost due to Scottish Government centralisation.

Dumfriesshire MSP Elaine Murray has criticised the lack of job creation as well as the delay in the establishment of the centre, which was originally planned to be opened early on in the 2015/2016 financial year.

The Dumfriesshire MSP said: “The Scottish Government have completely conned the people of Dumfries & Galloway with the hopes of job creation at the National Centre of Resilience. We were led to believe that the establishment of the NCR would make up for the 46 local jobs which were axed because of their centralisation agenda.

In fact that only two jobs are being created shows what a complete myth that was. To add insult to injury, funding for the centre isn’t expected to continue beyond next year.

“The idea for the centre itself was a welcome one, even if it has taken a year longer than initially planned. However the initial vision for the NCR has now been completely watered down, and is now simply an add on to the University of Glasgow.

“The Scottish Government deliberately and cynically raised local expectations in order to divert attention away from the fact that they cutting vital jobs in our region.”