Statement by TUV leader Jim Allister:-
“Today the Policing Board is wasting hours on matters from 40 years ago, but on the ground policing is being neglected.
“On Saturday there was a security incident on Burn Road, Cookstown which caused shops and businesses there and on William Street to be closed for hours, costing significant trading losses. One of the affected shops identified on its CCTV a figure apparently leaving the device. Properly, the shopkeeper contacted the PSNI. Three days later the police have still to come and collect the CCTV and it appears the CCTV from other premises has also not been checked.
“What an absurd situation that a real time security incident occurs and the police haven’t the manpower or time to collect relevant evidence, but senior officers can be tied up for hours before the Policing Board to listen to a Sinn Fein rant about what the police did or didn’t do years ago when their IRA and other terrorists were bombing and murdering.
“Public confidence in policing requires expeditious responses to today’s problems, but this Cookstown incident demonstrates failure.”