Croydon is among the 20 police stations in London listed to stay open, in controversial closure plans released yesterday by the Metropolitan Police.
But Wimbledon, Mitcham, Lavender Hill in Battersea and Twickenham are on the list of 18 to shut.
The Met plans to reduce the number of front counters where the public can speak to officers from 37 to 20, and cut the number of them open 24 hours a day to just eight, as the force grapples with making £260million of “savings” this financial year. It says 1,700 officer and staff jobs will also be cut.
Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Matt Twist told the London Assembly that the police station closures would save £7million a year but were “difficult choices”.
Open for business: Croydon is one of the 20 London police stations set to remain in service
The plan breaks a pledge from Mayor Sir Sadiq Khan and the Met to have a counter staffed 24/7 in all London’s 32 boroughs.
That commitment formed part of the police’s “A New Met for London” strategy, aimed at delivering “more trust, less crime and high standards”.
The force says that in making its cuts, it is prioritising neighbourhood policing, response policing and public protection.
Chris Philp, the Conservative MP for Croydon South and the Tories’ shadow Home Secretary, tweeted “The police will now be less accessible and Londoners even less safe.”
Philp suffers from troubling amnesia about the years 2010 to 2024, which sees him, a former policing minister in a government that took 20,000 police officers off the nation’s streets, forget that the Met first began closing its front counters and selling off police station properties in 2013, when then Mayor Boris Johnson closed 98 of them – including four in Croydon. London had previously had nearly 140 police counters.
Amnesia: Croydon South MP Chris Philp appears to have forgotten the stations closed by the Tories
In the responses to the plans, concerns have been expressed that those on bail will have to travel miles to report as part of conditions, increasing the risk that defendants might abscond.
Kingston police station has been listed to remain open, in a move to avoid the nearest 24-hour counter to Richmond being Acton, Sutton or Lambeth.
Paula Dodds, the chair of the Met Police Federation, said: “If we close police station front counters the public can’t have access to us when they need it most.
“We can’t hide behind technology because not everyone has access to technology to call the police or go online to report a crime – they want that personal interaction. The public are going to have to go further to get access to a police station if they need it out of hours.”
A spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police said: “Just 5% of crimes were reported using front counters last year, with only 1% of these being made during the night.
“At the busiest front counter in London, on average 15 crimes are reported a day – less than one an hour – and in the least busy, only 2.5 crimes are reported a day.
“Londoners tell us they want to see more officers on our streets.
“The decision to reduce and close some front counters will save £7million and 3,752 hours of police officer time per month, allowing us to focus resources relentlessly on tackling crime and putting more officers into neighbourhoods across London.”
A period of detailed design work and engagement is underway before final decisions are made later this year.
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