Residents in Helensburgh have been denied access to their local police station up to twice a week, figures obtained by local MSP Jackie Baillie have shown.

Jackie Baillie used Freedom of Information laws to get Police Scotland to reveal that Helensburgh Police Station has been closed to the public on 13 occasions during March and April this year.

The Helensburgh and Lomond MSP recently complained to Police Scotland after local residents contacted her to say that the police station was closing its doors to the public with no explanation being given.

Now, the figures show the true extent of the unexpected closures. The East King St office was affected more than twice a week on average and closed down completely for three days in a row in April. Many of the complaints Jackie received relate to periods following April.

Jackie Baillie said the closures were unacceptable and demanded a clear explanation of the scale of the problem.

Jackie said:

“A few weeks ago I said that the mystery closures seemed to be happening more and more often and these figures are proof that there is a real problem with staffing at Helensburgh Police Office. Indeed these figures only cover March and April and I received a number of complaints after this period.

“Most people would understand if this was genuinely a case of rare and unexpected circumstances forcing the station to close down for a short period. But this is happening far too regularly to be ignored and it is completely unacceptable that the police station is left closed to the public for days at a time.

“Police Scotland needs to be honest with local residents about these closures and ensure that it has enough staff and police officers in place to cover frontline services