MP Theresa Villiers formally presented a petition in Parliament yesterday signed by more than a thousand people asking for the London Mayor not to close down and sell-off Barnet police station.
The 1196 names on the petition say they strongly object to this and want to save the station. They urge the Mayor to drop his closure plans and reopen the station front desk. Theresa and many in the local community have been fighting to stop the station from being sold off for development.
There has been a partial reprieve. Theresa has secured a promise from City Hall that the station will not shut until a new location for the Dedicated Ward Officers (DWOs) assigned to Oakleigh, High Barnet, Totteridge, and Underhill wards can be found.
Theresa explained that the petition showed the depth of opposition in Barnet to the Mayor's closure plan.
“The campaign to save our local police is very much alive and this petition shows that local people care and that they want to their police station re-opened,” she said.
“It was important I put on record in the House of Commons the opposition to closure. It would leave my constituency without a building from which the police can operate. This would mean that all officers would have to be based in Colindale, several miles away.
"Local people tell me again and again they want a police station in their community. It is good to have secured the promise that a new location for ward officers will be found. But this is not a good enough substitute for a fully operational police station with a front desk open to the public.
“While officers remain at station and the building remains in the hands of the Met, we still have time to make the case to save it. The campaign continues.”
