A PLAN to close Hampstead Police Station has emerged just three years after campaigners last fought to secure its survival.
Furious residents are now preparing to battle again with Camden Police chief Mark Heath to safeguard the grade-II listed building in Rosslyn Hill (pictured) after the cost-cutting plan was exposed.
Rumours of the proposal – part of a London-wide review of police property – had spread late last week and on Monday night Chief Superintendent Heath confirmed them.
Speaking to a packed, fractious meeting of the Camden Police Community Consultative Group at Conway Hall, Holborn, he said that the police station was “from another era and unfit for the purpose”, adding: “It looks fantastic from the outside but the inside is awful for modern policing – it’s just not useable at the moment.”
Responding to questions from Lib Dem spokesman Ed Fordham he said the extensive station, which currently houses Hampstead’s safer neighbourhood team of beat officers, has a counter for reporting crime and is used as a base for operations and training, could be replaced by a “shop front” office further up the High Street. He said traditional multi-purpose police stations were no longer effective and added: “We need to look at what the cost implications are of making it fit for its purpose.”
Consultants are writing a report on options which will be considered later this year, but any substantial interior renovation would cost millions and Chief Supt Heath’s comments on Monday made it clear he does not believe they are likely to be feasible.
Superintendent Martin Richards, also speaking at Monday’s meeting, said sector police teams, which tackle more serious crimes, may have to be disbanded to provide funds for the safer neighbourhood teams promised by current Metropolitan Police commissioner Sir Ian Blair and Mayor Ken Livingstone.
In 2001 Sir Ian’s predecessor, Sir John Stevens, promised residents there were no plans to close the station. But the sale of the police station would raise millions and the Metropolitan Police Authority is looking to it and similar sales to solve its financial crisis.
Residents say the short term cash gain would be at the cost of increased crime in Hampstead’s leafy streets.
Mr Fordham, who lives in Christchurch Hill, said: “I’m really angry that I had to bring up the issue in this way – there has been no consultation with the public and if the police station is closed it will undo all the trust and good work that has been built up in the last year.”
He warned Hampstead would increasingly be policed from centralised bases out of touch with and out of easy reach of its residents.
Janine Griffis, chair of the CPCCG and herself a Hampstead resident said: “The community needs to be involved in this decision from the very beginning and there needs to be very broad consultation. Mr Heath knows what a noise Hampstead can make.”