Police station opening hours reduced to cut costs

It’s part of a district wide change in opening hours for police enquiry offices for the public to take effect from January 1, 2015.

The decision to reduce opening hours at police stations across Northern Ireland was taken as part of PSNI’s efforts to deliver on required budget savings.

E District Commander, Chief Superintendent Pauline Shields said: “From 1 January, 2015 police stations in Lurgan, Portadown, Armagh, Banbridge and Newry, will open to the public from 8am to 8pm. We know that our peak period of footfall occurs between these times so we hope this change in opening hours will bring a minimum of inconvenience.

“This reduction in opening hours does not mean a reduction in service. There will be no change to the availability of police officers to respond to calls and the public will still be able to contact police at any time on the 101 number or 999 in an emergency.

“There is no doubt that policing is changing, however, our policing purpose remains the same – keeping people safe is still our priority and we will continue to do this by preventing harm, protecting the vulnerable and detecting offenders.”

In Lurgan the change means opening hours will be cut from 24 hours to 12 hours a day.