Petitions to prevent the sale have been placed in various shops around the town and will be handed to Member for Upper Hunter George Souris to take to the State Government.

Mr Souris said depending on what he is given he will either take it directly to NSW Parliament or to the Minister for Police Michael Daley.

Mr Souris said the last sitting of parliament for 2009 would be on Friday, December 11 and if the petition is not given to him by then he would present it in the first quarter of next year.

Upper Hunter Shire councillor Lorna Driscoll is one of the Aberdeen residents who does not want to see the station get sold and has the petition in her shop for people to sign.

“The petition is going very well,” she said.

“Aberdeen is a growing town, there are more people in the town now than there were when there were two police stationed in the town,” she said.

“I have noticed the crime rate has increased since then too.”

Cr Driscoll said Aberdeen is growing and has new subdivisions and a request for more housing for the elderly.

There is also a high school, a primary school and a preschool as well as two pubs, two clubs and a licensed restaurant.

“Don’t sell our station in case we need it in a couple of years,” she said.

Along with the increasing population, Cr Driscoll said the community needed a police presence in the town for rapid response and said an incident happened to her several years ago that required a quick response.

“If the police hadn’t been at the Aberdeen Police Station and got to me in two minutes, I don’t know what would have happened,” Cr Driscoll said.