THE public in Leigh are not being kept in the dark about what is happening in the Police Force.

Chairman of the Greater Manchester Police Authority, Stephen Murphy, hit back at claims that a review of all police property has been kept secret - including plans to close down certain police stations including Leigh, Atherton, Hindley and Westhoughton centralising them on the Leigh-Westhoughton boundary.

And his comments were backed by Leigh businessman Stuart Hide, Chairman of the Police Consultative Committee, who said: "It's a load of cobblers! There is no truth whatsoever in the suggestion that Leigh Police Station is in line to close down.

"It is simply a matter of the old story of economics to see what savings can be made in the force as a whole, but Leigh Police Station is not, I repeat not, going to close!"

Cllr Murphy said: " The review process has been regularly mentioned at our meetings and has also been discussed at police and community consultative groups.

"What we have been desperate to do is to gather the basic information together to enable options to be put to public consultation. There was no secret about this, but obviously we did not want to create unease with the public until we had these details."

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