I cannot but be disappointed that the new choice for Chief Constable is again someone with no experience of Scottish policing ("Rank and file officers warn new chief of challenging job", The Herald, December 3).
Granted that Phil Gormley has a wide range of other experience, it still includes no real acquaintance with the type of policing required in the truly rural areas of Scotland such as the Highlands, Grampian and particularly the Outer and Northern Isles.
From my own familiarity with the Thames Valley rural areas – largely agricultural, interspersed with upmarket dormitory villages with excellent communications – I believe it hardly constitutes the type of experience to be met with in Scotland’s rural parts, with their poorer communication links, including lack of mobile cover and broadband, and scattered, isolate, small communities.
Whilst I do not want to prejudge the abilities of the incumbent, surely there was someone in Scotland with wide experience and a knowledge of our remote areas who could have qualified for this post? Or is this another case, like so many in major Scottish institutions, where the much reported “Scottish cringe” means that only someone from outside Scotland can possibly be the best person for the job?
Let us just hope that Mr Gormley takes the opportunity of the weeks before taking up his post to learn as much as he can of life beyond the Central Belt and that, when other posts in his top team become vacant, at least some can be filled by suitable, successful officers from north of this line.
P Davidson,
Gartcows Road,
Falkirk.
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