Thursday January 24, 2013, H&H Series

23

OPINION

WORD Savings are a return to failed enforcement ON THE STREET

Police cutbacks
Andrew Dismore, London Assembly member for Barnet and Camden, writes: As you reported last week, London Mayor Boris Johnson is trumpeting an increase in police numbers. But, in fact, there is actually a cut during this coalition governments tenure. The mayor has chosen the arbitrary date of 2011, when the Met was at a very low number in the middle of a long recruitment freeze under his mayoralty, as the base for his comparator. It would be hard for the Met not to rise above that particularly low ebb. A fairer comparison would be from one election to the next. When Labour left ofce in May 2010, Barnet had 595 police ofcers. By 2015, the date of the next election, there will be just 564 thats a cut of 34 ofcers and it will take until then to build up to that gure. So for most of the next two years we will have even fewer than that. Barnets safer neighbourhood teams had 189 ofcers, sergeants and PCSOs in May 2010. By 2015, there will be only 135 a cut of 54 ofcers. Camden had 884 ofcers, which will fall to 751 a cut of 133 and Camden SNTs will fall from 122 to 105 a cut of 17, which would be even greater but for the extra ofcers funded by Camden Council. These are not my gures, they are ofcial gures from answers to questions I raised at mayors question time and from the mayors announcements. Moreover, our well-respected SNTs will not be earmarked for

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Hampstead police station earmarked for closure each ward as they were. The only guarantee is just one dedicated Pc and one PCSO. The remainder will be moved around areas as large as a quarter of the borough, losing the local connection that has proved so effective. This new set-up is very similar to the pre-SNT days of sector policing with just one beat ofcer per ward and which had to be replaced by SNTs as it did not work. The police stations at Barnet, Whetstone, Hampstead, West Hampstead and Albany Street are to close their doors to the public completely . The suggested replacement four-hour-a-week stalls in supermarkets, coffee shops or post ofces is not in any way a suitable alternative for those who wish to discuss condential matters or report crime face-toface to a police ofcer.

Picture: Nigel Sutton I am pleased that our campaign to save Golders Green police station from complete closure has been successful so far but it will only be open for shorter hours, probably just 40 hours a week, as will Kentish Town. The only stations open round the clock will be Colindale, in the west of Barnet and Holborn, in the south-east of Camden, which are not readily accessible to tens of thousands of residents.

Change of heart lacks credibility

Claire Thomas, of Cranley Gardens, N10, writes: I read that our local Liberal Democrat MP Lynne Featherstone has now decided to campaign against the closure of the police station in Muswell Hill. Having been a Home Ofce minister only up until a few months ago, her department presided over a 20 per cent cut in the police budget and cut thousands of policing posts. Yet now she has decided to campaign against the direct consequence of her own departments policy decision. It would clearly be a huge shame if the historic police station at Muswell Hill was sold off for housing or another development and its important we maintain an active local police team in the area. I dont think a coffee shop, church or other replacement is really

suitable as a setting for people to report crime. I hope the mayors ofce eventually see sense and keep Muswell Hill police station open. But for Ms Featherstone to say that she now opposes the decision is stretching the bounds of political credibility to its limits. She should defend the decisions made by her government and explain why the particular budget cuts were made. People would ultimately respect that more even if they disagreed with the eventual outcome. You cant have it both ways.

@hamandhigh
Ric Euteneuer: Yes, those pesky victims wanting to report crime to a real policeman or woman rather than someone unsympathetic at a call centre elsewhere outside the borough, who is completely unfamiliar with the geography of the area, or someone at the local WHSmith or post ofce who probably just inputs the data on an IT system for the Met to ignore or add to the statistics.

Muswell Hill Police Station station in the whole of Haringey seems a cut too far. As people have said, to have to travel to Wood Green to report crime if you live in Muswell Hill or Crouch End will put an end to the very notion of neighbourhood policing and having a visible police presence in each community . Ive been lucky myself never to have been a victim of serious crime. But, like others, I appreciate knowing that theres a police team in the local area if something bad were to happen, able to respond quickly . Of course we should make back ofce savings and cut down

Picture: Nigel Sutton on all the paperwork. But to get rid of police stations completely in some parts of the borough will make residents feel less safe, particularly older people. I for one will be going to the meeting with the mayors ofce on February 20 to let them know what I think of these silly proposals. As for Lynne Featherstone, shes also got to take some responsibility for this too. Although she may want people to forget it, until last year she was a Home Ofce minister, with responsibilities for where the budget axe should fall.

Closures are a cut too far for borough

Ben Simons, of Crouch Hall Road, N8, writes: The changes to policing in London are clearly in chaos. To read that the plans are now to have only one full-time police

@streetlife.com
Alistair, Vale of Health: If anyone in Hampstead needs help with local food essentials during this snowy period then do shout as Im around over the weekend. Cheers