The decision by Police Scotland to axe support for another successful local project has been slammed by politicians.
Despite helping significantly reduce traffic speeds on a dangerous stretch of road, the Community Speed Watch initiative in Kinross-shire has been abandoned by the force.
Politicians believe the latest move shows the “true face” of centralisation and claim it is the thin end of the wedge for local policing.
It comes just days after The Courier revealed the potentially lifesaving Skywatch scheme is also being ignored by the new force.
Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie said: “Local communities are being dealt the worst hand from the creation of a single national police force.
“Our local station opening hours are under threat, vital links between the community and officers are being severed and Special Constable awards are under review.
“In Courier country, we’re having to wave goodbye to the volunteers who worked closely with local police through the Skywatch and Speed Watch initiatives.
“It is both saddening and frustrating the SNP Government has been so willing to auction off this pillar of our community in the vain search of their promised savings.”
These views were echoed by Scottish Labour’s justice spokesman, Graeme Pearson.
He told The Courier Police Scotland should be working more closely with communities and decisions on the future of such projects should be made at a local level.
“The whole notion of centralising the police force was supposed to be for taking out the unnecessary bits that were being replicated time and time again across the country,” he said.
“If worthwhile projects are being scuppered on the back of centralisation, then that certainly wasn’t what the single police force was meant to be about.
“Policing needs to be delivered in the way the community expects not the way some centralised office would like to see it.
“If there is a way Police Scotland can demonstrate it can do things in a cost-effective fashion, it needs to show communities and get them on side, rather than issuing an edict that scuppers them altogether.”
Commander of operational support for Police Scotland Chief Superintendent Derek Robertson said: “We have to make sure we serve communities need and interests. We put the right people in the right place at the right time.
“The wrong thing to do is go into an area where they are not required.”
During the 12-week Speed Watch pilot, volunteers used “speed guns” to carry out checks on the A977 near Crook of Devon, in Kinross-shire and they had hoped to extend the scheme to other communities.
The volunteer UK Civil Air Patrol service, known as Skywatch, has bases across Scotland, including Perth and Fife and can reach most places within an hour but it will no longer be used.