Closure is latest blow to rural life; DAILY POST YOUR VOICE IN WALES.

YET another police station is to close in North Wales and again the force hand out a glib and wholly unsatisfactory justification for it.

It is unacceptable in a region like this, where community ties remain strong, that 25 police stations have already been shut in just 10 years - leaving only 28 bases. And of those, five have no front counter, thereby preventing the public having any direct access.

Now, as we report today, comes closure number 26 at Towyn of all places. Its population swells from 2,500 to a huge 50,000 in the summer. Are North Wales Police really saying that it is appropriate for a place with such a number not to have a single officer on duty? Well clearly, since their disgraceful response is that Towyn's station is considered "surplus to requirements" by their central division command team.

Take it from us, North Wales Police, that station isn't considered surplus to requirements by the people of Towyn, nor the holidaymakers who go there trusting that the forces of law and order are nearby to be called upon if necessary.

And no matter how speedy the response from a hi-tech operations centre, the fact is it won't be as fast as from police officers based in the heart of the community they serve and with their finger on its pulse.

It is muddle-headed, skewed thinking by the police that shutting local stations and marshalling their officers into large centres on a remote industrial estate somewhere is the best way to serve the people of North Wales.

Maybe this is the way forward in high crime, urban areas across the border. But here, in a part of the world where many greatly value the local post office (those who still have one), the newsagent's, the milkman, and the corner shop, it comes as yet another hammer blow.

Bobbies on the beat, and a bobby on the counter at the local station is still important. It is not good enough to sprinkle community support officers here and there while grouping the actual police officers away from the towns and villages they serve.

This closure is another nail in the coffin of traditional, close-knit community life in North Wales. Some may excuse it as the inevitable march of progress. But progress towards what?