The people of the Eastern Riverina are being put at risk with no police presence in the region for extended periods ranging from several hours to several weeks.

Communities are being abandoned as local police stations are closed for business, with officers being diverted to bolster numbers in nearby Wagga or Albury.

* At Yerong Creek the constable is about to embark on leave for three months, partially due to extensive hours he has worked reinforcing the Wagga Wagga police numbers.

* The Rock constable was absent for several weeks and is now back on duty but is mostly based at Wagga Wagga Police Station.

Four attempts were made from the ERC office to contact the Holbrook Police Station last Friday, the phone rang out on every occasion.

On the same day, the ERC made calls to the Henty Police Station and again these calls were unanswered and were not diverted to another station or call centre.

The empty police stations have earned the ire of local councils with John Paterson Deputy Mayor of Lockhart Shire Council telling the Chronicle that his council was seeking a meeting with the Wagga Police Commander to discuss the issue.

“At the last Council meeting it was resolved that we organise a face to face meeting with the Wagga Police Commander about our towns at risk,” Cr Paterson said.

“The frustrating part about it is it’s on hold.

“We have literally no one to talk to as the current Commander has been transferred and the new Commander hasn’t turned up yet”.

Councillor Paterson added that his Council wanted to go through the correct procedures to get the matter resolved, but was constantly coming up against a brick wall.

“If we don’t get a resolution soon, we will have no alternative but to take the issue higher and go directly to the Police Commissioner,” Cr Paterson said.

“I know of two clear emergency instances that happened in the past fortnight where calls were made to the local police station.

“Both calls were diverted to Wagga and the appropriate action not taken. “This just isn’t good enough”.