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Sixty police stations to shut
Justin Davenport, Crime Correspondent09.06.08
Up to 60 police stations across London are set to close in a dramatic shake-up of policing, the Standard can today reveal.
Scotland Yard is planning to sell off dozens of ageing and Victorian stations and replace them with "front counters" in shops and offices.
Officers will be located in so-called "patrol bases" on industrial estates rather than police stations.
Ageing prisoners' cells will be replaced by purpose-built "custody suites" - buildings which can cater for up to 40 prisoners at a time.
The decision to offload hundreds of buildings, including police garages, offices and warehouses, was made four years ago. Now an Evening Standard survey has found the Met has identified 56 stations it wants to close - and several more whose future is also in doubt.
Almost every London borough has at least one station which could close under the plans - and a few have three or four. The sell-off is opposed by rank-and-file officers who fear it could lead to police losing touch with the public. The Met Police Federation, which represents patrolling officers, says patrol bases would become "police barracks" with officers retreating behind barbed wire security fencing.
Campaigns have already been launched to save some stations such as Hampstead and Greenford, but the scale of the possible sell-off is only now becoming clear with claims that any consultation exercise has been low key or non-existent.
Scotland Yard says the consultation documents detail "options" to close police stations and nothing has been decided yet.
Commissioner Sir Ian Blair, talking to the Standard, said the force had to deal with buildings which were impractical for modern technology.
He added: "Well in excess of 90 per cent of our contact with the public is not at a police station, it is by phone. We have guaranteed that we will always have a 24-hour police station open in every borough in London. Something in excess of 40 per cent of our structures date to before the Second World War. They are extremely expensive to maintain and very far from green.
"We have to recognise that the vast amount of contact is now by phone and increasingly by internet. Every cop who is standing in the police station is not in the street." However, campaigners against the closures say that by centralising policing in "patrol bases" the Met risks distancing itself from the public.
Met Police Federation chairman Peter Smyth said: "The idea of putting police into patrol bases and closing down police stations is against the whole ethos of community policing.
"The public need to have access to police front-counters and the alternative that is being proposed is to position Safer Neighbourhood Teams in shop-type premises. But these teams should be on patrol rather than manning pretend police stations," said Mr Smyth.
"The danger of putting police into patrol bases is that while community support officers will be on patrol, the police will be reacting to incidents and will only be seen when they are confrontational. We will become more like the French riot police. Local police stations help to generate the feeling that police are there to help them.
"These patrol bases are unmarked. The public will not know what they are, as far as the public are concerned they might be factories."
Mr Smyth added: "The police base idea sounds like a police barracks with officers emerging in their vehicles to carry out enforcement then vanishing again behind their barbed wire fencing. We will be in danger of being seen as the heavies confronting the public rather than talking to people in the community."
Reader views (29)
yes it is true police deal with crime , robberries and all mankind stupid behaviour, but the real thing remain is that , their way of tackling it is not in accordance with the word of GOD, instead , the judgements are based on human law (rules, regulations, acts, legislations etc) and all this has eradicated the true meaning to life, such that in the kingdom of GOD, there are no jails , no cells , only His word takes priority, anything below that is folly
The bride of the lamb
Veronica (HIS TRUE IMAGE)
JESUS
- Veronica, uk , london
ring ring "Hello and welcome to the safer community neighbourhood police emergency response hotline. Please review your options whilst we place your call in a queue. If you are being stabbed with a knife, press 1. If you are being shot at by a gunman, press 2. If you think you may be able to prevent an imminent terrorist attack, press 3.....(and so on...) your call will be answered in approx 8 minutes"
- Adrian Hoyes, Cambridge, uk
I say we must keep our police stations, if I have any problems I go to the police station in person and report what is going on, we have few enough police stations in the first place.
When I was younger every village had a police house and a resident policeman, he had his finger on the pulse he knew every one and every one knew him.
He knew who the toe rags were and kept an eye on things and I think that it should go back to those days.
- Ian Barwick, Durham North East England
It looks as if the Police have largely given up the fight against crime and are retreating to safer, remote bastions like a failed military force.
Still, there is an upside if we receive a cut in Council Tax and are allowed to administer civilian justice to local criminals.
- Ed, London
They'd be selling the property at the worst time for years. First Gordon Brown gives our gold away, now this!
Apart from money - which seems to be the main motive - it's clearly a ridiculous idea in the first place. The Met should only go green when the criminals have first. Helicopters aren't green either Sir Ian, but maybe they serve a purpose?
Anyone for an elected police chief to stop this nonsense?
- David, Wandsworth
Will the last person of of GB please turn off the light?
- Joan Battershill, Mitcham Surrey
Here in Hampstead we have been fighting the closure of the police station and the reduction in the number of uniformed officers located here since the previous borough commander blundered in on this debate. Sadly, we have had to use FOI to prove that the sales plans were quite advanced (including plans for a restaurant) and it has been an uphill struggle.
However, we took a petition to Sir Ian Blair and there was acceptance by the MPA that the communications have been poor.
The new Borough Commander appears to be very good and in touch and interested in the views of the community so were are vaguely hopeful and I so hope the MPS are wise enough to listen to him.
- Ed Fordham, Hampstead
The reason that most contact is not through police stations is that this is been made almost impossible by a system that permits only one person to be at the counter at the time, even if they are reporting a crime with forms to take an hour to fill in - I had to wait for two hours at Kennington to collect my stolen bike because there were three people ahead of me and I was not permitted to ask anyone else for it. Ludicrous, actually amounts to treating the public with contempt.
- Amanda, United Kingdom
Sheer stupidity! Oh well soon we will all be living in hilltop iron age forts with spears, sword, shields and wild dogs to protect ourselves. Thanks Labour.
- Billybob, London
I'm not happy with this. First we lose our local control rooms with all their local knowledge in favour of giant call centres. Then they cut our police team numbers servilely. Followed by closing our training centre for recruitment and wonder why we have no one officers left to answer calls especially when they have doubled paperwork in the last five years and no fresh officers. I'm not going to even mention the effectiveness of PCSOs.
We joined to help people, why are the powers that be doing their best to stop us.
- In Despair, London
I have an idea, how about instead of closing the police stations, we close Scotland Yard and eliminate all the police pen-pushers and managers who seem to have no sense of reality and let coppers get on with what the public want them to do; fight crime!
- Dean, Surbiton, Surrey
Once they close a police station - many are in prime locations, it will never be possible to re-establish it there due to the costs involved. As for contact with the public - why will having lots of small bases, open for limited hours, be better than having locations which everyone knows and are secure? Also, how much time will be wasted manning these small "Neighbourhood Bases"? Far better to concentrate resources in the existing stations. As for having a "Patrol Base", why does this improve response times v.s. having multiple patrol sites? It clearly doesn't. This whole plan is being foisted on the public.
- Huw Morgan, London
That's it then . . . No more crime allowed!
- Fraser, Telford Park
This should be resisted. At the best of times policing in London is a nightmare , and taking away priceless stations because of "cost" is a very dubious argument at best. Also I am concerned about the almost sub para-military language used. There is no such thing has a "police barracks" There are only police stations.
- Sebastian, Brent
Well, if Ian Blair says that "many of these structures... are far from green" then of course they must be closed. If this policy saves the planet for future generations then who are we to complain? Although I must say that I'm glad I'll be dead by then.
- Gary, London
Are there even 60 police stations left in London? They've shut all of my local ones and we now have a "drop-in surgery" in a shop (open 9-5) to report crime.
- Arvin Alaff, London
Let them close. We never see the police locally, except when they are doing two's and blues, rushing back to the station for coffee or tea.
But if they close the police stations then please let us administer our own form of law and justice.
Also reduce our over charged council tax administered by our corrupt local officials.
- A.Winsley, London. England
According to Sir Ian Blair "Well in excess of 90 per cent of our contact with the public is not at a police station.." Too right! Most stations only open during office hours and are manned by civilian assistants. Just where are these record number of police officers allegedly recruited in the last few years? It would appear that, having moved to vehicle patrols, they are now ever-increasingly in the sky, in those helicopters.
- Haskey, London, SE1
My local Police Station has recently seen 'improved' cover - it's now staffed for an hour and a half twice a week by a retired police officer, while we also have 'events' timetabled which are either 'beat panels' or 'neighbourhood action panels' which last 60 or 90 minutes and of which there are 7 between now and year end. We have one beat policeman who also has to cover villages over an area of god knows how many miles, and a PCSO out to catch speeding motorists and anti-social behaviour.... I've not seen her once, and I've lived there for 25 years!
- Paul, London
Help, Boris, Help!
- Victor, Nw Kent, Swanley, England
Blair is an imbecile. Who cares if the police stations are green, for heaven's sake? And does he not realise that this will belittle the police force even more in the eyes of the public and the villains? Tough policing, with officers on the beat and the local nick being the centre of authority, is the only way of dealing with crime, and being seen as the protector of the community. This is a silly, weak politically correct concept, and as such it needs to be kicked out into the long grass. Along with Sir Ian.
- Ken, Bexleyheath,Kent
There are 32 Boroughs that's nearly 2 per Borough, there are 140 police stations in London so that's just under 50% of all Police Stations that's just nuts?
- Dave, Wanstead
They just don't get it do they? The public want to be able to have more confidence in a police presence on the streets, not less; and that means finding a policeman when you need one or calling in to see the police when you need to. What does Boris' new adviser late of the New York Police Department have to say about this? Talk about lions led by donkeys.
- Peter Haldane, London
Yet another example of how touchy-feely plastic policing is replacing real law enforcement in London. What next? Rules against arresting people and merely inviting them to attend the nearest 'police suite' at their leisure? Note the new Met. Police motto "Soft on Criminals - soft on crime - tough on victims and god help those who drop their chewing gum"
- Joan, London, England
The concept of "patrol bases" seems to be something better suited to Baghdad or Afghanistan... presumably the police will only venture forth from these into hostile territory heavily armed in armoured vehicles, possible with air support?
As for Commisar Blair's; "40 per cent of our structures date to before the Second World War. They are extremely expensive to maintain and very far from green."
He appears to be suggesting that to cut costs and reduce environmental impact we should demolish all pre-war public buildings... perhaps we should start with the Palace of Westminster, the Old Bailey, etc?
- Sean J, London, UK
Considering not a day goes by without news of another stabbing or other violent crime, could this news have come at at a worse time? I would like to know that I could summon the police, or better still walk into my local nick if I need to, without having to locate the nearest industrial estate.
- Andy Seaman, Bow, London
Since when did the Police service become like DHL? Located in industrial estates... driving around in vans... turning up to collect parcels, I mean criminals only when you call. How does this plan sit within the 'Citizen Focus' programme? I suspect it's got more to do with the value of the land and properties that anything else, it's short-term thinking for a fast property buck.
- Jonathan, London
This sound all rather expensive, and pointless. Reminiscent of what New Labour did with the post offices. Unfortunately we aren’t deal with letters and tax forms, rather robberies and violent crime. Custody suites, police barracks, front counters, patrol bases! What we need is more ‘old style’ police stations, the one’s which we can all recognise and more police officers to police them.
By the time of the next election when Labour are kicked out how much damage will have been done...
- Paul, London
New Labour at it again . . . Selling off yet more assets i.e. the police stations!
- Fraser, Telford Park
