MP Theresa Villiers has told the Metropolitan Police Commissioner that local people remain strongly opposed to the closure of Barnet police station.
The Chipping Barnet MP met Cressida Dick, the capital’s most senior police officer, to say the loss of the station would leave officers based too far away in Colindale. Ms Villiers also made this point in a separate meeting with Barnet borough police commander, Chief Superintendent Simon Rose.
“I used my discussions with the head of the Met and our local borough commander to promote my campaign to save Barnet police station. I wanted the concerns of my constituents to be heard at the highest level.”
Opposition to closing the police station was also expressed at a recent meeting of the High Barnet Community Action Panel (CAP) - a forum for the police to hear from local people about their priorities for policing.
Ms Villiers said: “Following what I heard at the CAP meeting, I contacted the London Mayor again to urge him to drop his plans to sell our local police station. A key point made at the CAP meeting was that officers need a secure space for equipment such as body-worn video and pepper spray. Selling off the police station without finding an alternative base for local officers would be completely unacceptable. It would have a very negative impact on police presence in the constituency.”
“The Mayor could use some of his £500 million reserves to keep the constituency’s last police station open. Barnet should not be an after-thought when it comes to policing. I will continue to urge the Mayor to give us more police officers in Barnet so we get a fairer share of resources for policing in London”
In her discussions with Cressida Dick and Simon Rose, the MP made the further point that the police needed to give a high priority to action to combat burglary in Barnet; and she asked Simon Rose for an update on measures being taken to deal with hate crimes and antisemitism.