POLICE Scotland is planning to close seven of its 10 control rooms, it has been claimed, as part of the force's drive to cut costs.

MSPs have hit out at the move, saying the closure of nerve centres across the country would weaken 999 responses. The claim comes after it emerged the new national force is considering closing 65 police station counters to the public.

Scottish LibDem leader Willie Rennie said yesterday police chiefs planned to retain control rooms - which handle 999 calls - at Govan in Glasgow and Billston Glen near Edinburgh.

In addition, a control room at Dundee, Aberdeen or Inverness would be saved to cover the north of Scotland. Mr Rennie said he had been told by senior officers the force would prefer to keep Dundee.

Control centres in Dumfries, Pitt Street in Glasgow, Glenrothes, Motherwell and Stirling were all facing the axe, he said.

Attacking the plans, he warned vital local knowledge built up by control room staff would be lost.

He said: "Centralisation has led to the asset-stripping of local services. Decades of progress wiped away with the stroke of a pen."

The claims were based on recent conversations with high-ranking officers, he said, and a report issued on Tuesday for watchdog body the Scottish Police Authority.

The report - Property Asset Management Plan 2013 to 2016 - did not identify specific control rooms for closure. However, referring to the future of the force's Contact, Command and Control division (C3), which runs control centres, it said: "With the introduction of the single service there is an opportunity to rationalise the C3 estate to reduce the footprint and reduce costs and a specific C3 Asset Management Rationalisation Plan requires to be developed by the Division."

Concerns over Police Scotland's cost-cutting plans dominated First Minister's Questions at Holyrood.

Mr Rennie challenged Alex Salmond to block control room closures, telling him: "The claim that this is nothing to do with him is claptrap,"

Mr Salmond also came under pressure from Scots Tory leader Ruth Davidson over plans to close 65 out of 214 public counters across Scotland.

But, backing the plans, the First Minister said: "The reality in the modern world is most police contact is by phone or online. Police Scotland have arranged the new 101 non-emergency number which receives 280,000 calls per month and their presence in the social media now has 393,000 followers."

Police Scotland confirmed the future of control rooms was under consideration. A spokesman said the force was "reviewing all areas of business including the current operating procedure of our contact centres and control rooms".

He added: "No decisions have yet been taken on future provision and any decisions will be subject to engagement with staff and the Scottish Police Authority."

In an interview with The Herald earlier this year, Chief Constable Sir Stephen House said he would be "very surprised" if 10 control rooms remained.

Arguing the network was "not a sustainable model", he added: "There is no timescale but the budget pressures suggest we would want to be moving towards that relatively quickly, say over the next couple of years."

Meanwhile, the Holyrood committee set up to monitor the establishment of the single force yesterday announced an investigation into the counter closure plans.