³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ

A police boss has welcomed a decision to restore 24-hour staffing to a police station in north Powys.

Dafydd Llywelyn, the Dyfed-Powys police and crime commissioner, said he had queried the scrapping of the Welshpool night shift a couple of years ago.

It was part of savings which also saw Llanfair Caereinion station close.

Mr Llywelyn, who said resources were in the hands of the chief constable, welcomed the "very positive" rethink, saying shift cuts had been unpopular.

For the last decade, police stations throughout the force area - covering Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion, Pembrokeshire and Powys - have been under review.

According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, many of the decisions had been made before Mr Llywelyn was elected commissioner in May 2016.

Changes to shift patterns had been defended on grounds of the increased use of technology, and of people increasingly reporting crimes via the internet and social media rather than visiting police stations.

Since the night shift was scrapped in Welshpool, coverage had been provided by response teams in Newtown.

"I'm really pleased to hear about the changes in the shift pattern at Welshpool," Mr Llywelyn told a virtual public meeting.

"Police resources are the responsibility of the chief constable and once the changes were made about two years ago, I was certainly questioning whether it was a right thing to do.

"Seeing the shift back is a very positive thing from my point of view. We did get criticism, not necessarily in Powys but in other areas, such as Milford Haven."