PANIC STATIONS?

Comments (0)

17 January 2008

Southwark's police chief has revealed plans to sell-off the three police stations already earmarked for closure, in a bid to make the force fit for the ‘21st Century’.

Police stations in Rotherhithe, East Dulwich and Camberwell could be put on the market to fund a wholesale change in the way the borough is policed, Borough Commander Malcolm Tillyer exclusively told the ‘News’. The first step in the plan involves identifying six sites around the borough, which may include supermarkets, where members of the public can speak to Met staff.

Cmdr Tillyer told the ‘News’: "The long term vision is that in losing Camberwell, Rotherhithe and Dulwich police stations we will gain a state of the art modern custody centre, a state of the art modern patrol base and eight safer neighbourhood bases, six of which would have front counter facilities.

"Selling off the older, not fit for purpose buildings is the way that the MPA [Metropolitan Police Authority] are looking to fund these new builds. Work has been done on  how much it will cost to roll out patrol bases across London, then that amount of money has to be found. Police stations will not be closed for the sake of it and a sound rationale must be found. For me, there is a sound rationale to shut these stations, as they are generally only used by the safer neighbourhood teams.

"This is not a case of selling off the buildings for financial gain, but to reinvest back into the borough to improve its policing."

Cmdr Tillyer is looking forward to the short term benefits of the closures, but admits it could be up to ten years before Southwark gets its state of the art station, complete with patrol base and custody centre.

"It could be anything between two and ten years, it could be five. But in the short term, we are actually increasing the number of front counters in the borough and putting the community closer, with better access to the police services, as we are talking about replacing three with six active and operational front counters."

Councillor Jonathon Mitchell, who has been out on the East Dulwich streets, drumming up support for his campaign to prevent the closure of the police stations, told the 'News' last week that the solution of 'shop-front front-desks' in place of local police stations was not good enough.

But Cmdr Tillyer responded that, while there would be a facility to report crime and provide information on incidents such as rape, murder and burglary, that was not the main role of the front desks.

"All our investigative and CID units are based across the three big police stations. The only officers who work out of our other stations are the safer neighbourhood teams. I would like our safer neighbourhood teams to spread out in line with where they work and that the bases are out and among the community,” he said.

"If the safer neighbourhood teams are taken out of the police stations, then there does not leave much in East Dulwich, Rotherhithe and Camberwell, other than a front counter. It would not be very economically viable to maintain the stations just as front counters.

"It is about providing options. Some people will feel more comfortable walking into a local Somerfield's to give some information while they are shopping, than being seen at a police station. They are much less likely to be standing among criminals or defendants signing on for bail, while others will need the safety and confidentiality of a police station, which will still be available at the new front desks."

When asked whether he would himself report a rape in a high street shop, Cmdr Tillyer added: "Ideally, yes you could report an incident of that kind. But serious incidents like those are generally a 999 call or an instance where we can arrange for police officers to visit the victim. I would not expect that to be reported in a small police station, but they have the facility for a small room for strict confidentiality, in the same way that a front desk will under the new plans."

Cmdr Tillyer described the call for one large, multifunctional, central patrol base as essential to policing, in what will eventually house all the borough’s investigative and crime squads. "Patrol bases will enable large numbers of police officers to be housed with sufficient accommodation for all their equipment. Years ago, police officers did not have as much protective equipment, CS spray or any of the other tools that are part of today's policing and they need the locker space. Access to sufficient computer facilities for keeping record of every incident and piece of information is so important to an increasing number of officers.

"Ideally we would be looking at somewhere in the middle of the borough, providing good access across Southwark, but no strict plans are set. Ideally, we would be looking at a large industrial unit away from disturbing nearby communities, with what will be a very busy 24-hour centre for the reactive units coming and going.

Cmdr Tillyer added that the existing stations were not able to accommodate plans to bring the police up to speed through a combination of their age, design and structure: "We are now in the 21st century and a lot of our buildings are old and not fit for policing in the 21st century, or can allow all the improvements we need to go forward within the structure of the current buildings. The extra accommodation around cells, the computing issues and the population growth we have had in the number of uniformed PCs and community support officers, and the buildings themselves not being fit for purpose - these are all factors. Some are in such a physical state of disrepair that it would not make economic sense to bring them up to the standard that we require."

Cmdr Tillyer rubbished rumours that the stations had already been sold and stated the importance of the consultation period that runs until March 6.

"It is really important as the Borough Commander that I understand the views of the community over what is such an emotive issue. It is really important that people express their views, but it is equally important that they do so once they are fully cited on the facts. It is important for the community to know the full facts,” he commented.

"By Thursday [today], a copy of the asset management plan will be in all public libraries. It is already available to be seen in all police stations and the Southwark police website, as well as going to a public meeting in February to discuss it.”

Cmdr Tillyer conceded that though he was heading the consultation, he was not responsible for the final outcome: "It is not going to be my decision. It is down to the MPA, who are responsible for all the police buildings across London and it is ultimately their decision alone. All I can do is feed up the views of my community so that can shape their decision.

"I wouldn't support any proposals by the MPA that I did not see would be beneficial to the policing of this borough. I genuinely believe that what they are planning will benefit Southwark and allow a more effective policing across the borough."

ACTION STATIONS

Number of crimes reported at individual stations across Southwark in the six months leading up to 31 December 2007

Camberwell: 6
Southwark: 1049
East Dulwich: 123
Peckham: 1223
Rotherhithe: 25
Walworth: 1540

Stations facing the axe in red.
Source: Met Police

---

Social Bookmarks:
del.icio.us Digg Newsvine Reddit Facebook StumbleUpon
Wikipedia: social bookmarking

---

Comments (0)

No comments have been posted.

Post a Comment

Please note Name and E-mail Address are required.

Name
E-mail Address (not displayed)
Comment (you may use HTML tags for style)
Enter Text Shown in Picture*
Comments are moderated, and will not appear on this article until the comment has been approved.