A PROMISE by the Liberal Party for a 24-hour St Albans police station has been welcomed by many - including an independent Kororoit byelection candidate who has given her preferences to the opposing party.

Liberal Party leader Ted Baillieu and byelection candidate Jenny Matic announced last week that win or lose the 28 June Kororoit byelection, if elected at the 2010 State Election, the Liberal Party would build a new police station in St Albans as part of the Main Road level crossing grade separation project, and provide an additional 60 police officers for the Kororoit electorate.

Independent candidate Tania Walters, a former Family First party member, said she supported elements of the Liberal Party’s Kororoit law-and-order plan.

However, Ms Walters has given her preferences to Labor Party candidate Marlene Kairouz for the byelection and the Labor Party has lashed out at the Liberal Party’s proposal saying it was an empty promise and such decisions needed to be made by Victoria Police — not political parties.

The Police Association has not rejected the proposal, but it questioned if additional police for St Albans would mean increasing police numbers or just moving officers from other areas.

“Any additional police promised by the Liberal Party must be above the current resource levels available throughout the Victoria Police Force,” association secretary Paul Mullett said.

“A recent study conducted by the National Institute for Economic and Industry Research revealed that Brimbank is an alarming 89 police members short of providing an adequate policing service to the community. This puts Brimbank as one of the most severely under resourced areas in the state.”

St Albans Traders Association secretary Asip Demiri said that in the past 20 years the St Albans shopping precinct has been deprived of a police station and a Centrelink office, even though St Albans was the welfare capital of the state.

“Without taking into account which party addresses the issues that this community has been screaming for, our organisation welcomes them with open arms,” he said.

Les Twentyman, an independent candidate who has been a youth worker in the western suburbs for 30 years, also supports the Liberal action plan.

Mr Twentyman said he recently spoke with the Police Association and was told just how low the numbers at each Brimbank station were.

The Liberal Party’s three-point action plan includes $20.1 million for 60 extra police officers for Kororoit; $7 million for a new 24-hour station in St Albans and staffed out of the extra 60 police officers; and upgrading the Caroline Springs Police Station to operate 24 hours instead of the current 16, with an extra 20 officers necessary for round-the-clock service.

Labor’s Ms Kairouz said that there had never been more police on the streets, with an extra 1400 on the beat since 1999.

“Any decisions on the location of stations or staff are operational matters for Victoria Police and should not be subject to political interference,” she said. “Mr Baillieu and the Liberal Party should leave police allocation to the experts and stop interfering in their decision-making process for political point scoring,” she said.