A County Councillor has queried how ‘open’ one of Donegal’s busiest garda stations is.
Cllr Patrick McGowan raised the issue of opening hours at Ballybofey station at yesterday’s meeting of the Lifford-Stranorlar Municipal District (MD).
“Nine out of ten times I call the garda station in Ballybofey and I get put through to Letterkenny,” he claimed.
“Every time I go over the town I see people standing outside on their mobile phones – that’s not an ‘open’ station as far as I’m concerned. We were told at a meeting of the Joint Policing Committee (JPC) that Ballybofey is one of the busiest stations in Donegal and covers a big area.”
Cllr Martin Harley said he ‘totally agreed’ with him, adding that one family missed a holiday abroad because of issues with opening hours there.
“A family contacted me to say the passport office rang the (Ballybofey) station to verify their ID, but no one answered the phone so they did not get their documents issued in time,” Cllr Harley said.
“I advise people to contact Letterkenny Garda Station first as it is manned all the time.”
Cllr McGowan said the practice of the passport office contacting Gardai by phone was ‘Third World standard’ and that they should use email instead.
Tags: