THE MP for Inverclyde has come out in support of the plan to close Greenock Police Station and replace it with another facility.

Ronnie Cowan says the time is right to replace the Rue End Street base with an emergency services hub.

He has been in contact with senior officers and is content Police Scotland is fully committed to maintaining a presence in the town.

The MP even suggests the closure could pave the way for a new college to be built there, with the disposal of the current campus for social housing.

Perhaps we shouldn't get ahead of ourselves talking about a new college, a saga that has itself been dragging on since 2018 with no concrete plan in place to actually fund it.

The devil is always in the detail and there are major unanswered questions over the Police Scotland proposal, with people right to be sceptical.

Where will the new station be?

Exactly what form will it take?

Are we going to lose any services or functions and see them centralised elsewhere?

Will the new station have a properly accessible, 24-hour seven-days-a-week public counter?

What about custody facilities - are frontline officers going to waste time driving up and down the M8 for arrested people to be put in cells elsewhere?

Or are we going to see more cases where people are apprehended then immediately released on undertakings to come to court later?

Until Police Scotland can answer questions on such topics, comforting words from senior staff on the force payroll will not suffice.