Lib Dems say the Met Police plans will endanger vulnerable residents and break key pledges made by the Mayor of London
The Liberal Democrats have written to the Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, in a bid to halt the Met’s recently unveiled plan to cut 24/7 police front counters.
The proposals will see front desks at stations, such as Kingston, change their opening hours. The proposed changes to Kingston’s opening hours would see it move to 10am-10pm on weekdays and 9am-7pm on weekends.
The letter was signed by all London Lib Dem MPs and Assembly Members, including leader and Kingston MP Sir Edward Davey.
Sir Edward Davey said: “The decision to reduce the 24/7 front desk service at Kingston Police Station is completely unacceptable. Many people, from both in and out of the borough, engage with Kingston’s significant night-time economy.
“With reduced hours at Kingston Police Station’s front counter, many people will feel as though their safety is not being prioritised, and that there will be nowhere to go in an emergency.”
Under the Met’s new plan, the number of London police station front desks open 24/7 will fall to two, Charing Cross and Lewisham. Twenty-seven, including Kingston, will stay open during the day with reduced hours, and five will close entirely.
The Metropolitan Police Service said the change will save £7 million and free up nearly 3,000 hours of officer time per month as it attempts to fill a £260 million funding gap.
But Gareth Roberts, London Assembly Member for South West London and Liberal Democrat spokesperson for policing and crime, said the move was “dangerous, discriminatory, and devastating for public confidence”.
Roberts told the Kingston Courier the plan goes directly against the Mayor of London’s 2024 manifesto pledge to maintain a 24/7 front counter in every London borough.
Roberts said: “He’s [Sadiq Khan] throwing the Met Police under the bus. He’s not taking any responsibility for it at all. Suddenly now he’s broken a promise, it’s an operational decision and he’s got nothing to do with it.”
Roberts added that, as well as betraying public confidence, this plan will disproportionately impact the most vulnerable Londoners, such as elderly people who may not be comfortable reporting crime online, and victims of domestic violence who may have their phones monitored.
Roberts said victims of domestic violence would particularly vulnerable if the plan were to go ahead.
“The only thing those victims can do is wait for a gap and make a run for it, often when the perpetrators are asleep,” he said.
This would potentially be within the hours when the majority of London police front desks will now be closed.
“Where are they supposed to go?” Roberts added.
The Met have responded to concerns by proposing a phone box system, although there is no published plan, as of yet, for which stations will have one of these boxes.
The plan would see yellow phone boxes installed on the outside walls of police stations. Londoners could use these, outside of front desk opening hours, to request to speak to an officer. The Met have not yet proposed what this would entail, and how this would differ from a station front desk.
Roberts described this proposal as “very tokenistic”.
“There is no information about how those yellow phone boxes are going to be maintained. So many questions arise”, he said.
Roberts questioned whether the Met had enough data to support this decision.
“The only data they have is the number of crimes reported,” he said.
The decision to reduce the opening hours of police station front desks was based only on data recording the number of crimes reported at them, and not the numerous other uses of front desks, such as missing person reports, concerns about stalking, and lost property.
“These aren’t crimes but they are valid uses of front desks”, said Roberts. “This isn’t evidence based decision making. It’s a knee jerk reaction. This whole thing has been a shambles from start to finish.”
Roberts urged both the Met and Sadiq Khan to conduct a proper evidence-based consultation to come to a solution on this pressing issue.
Khan, on behalf of himself and the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Sir Mark Rowley, said : “When he [Mark Rowley] presents me the evidence that no one is using these front counters, you are wasting resources, wasting police power, that police power we can use elsewhere, I think I would be a fool to be dogmatic and not follow the evidence from the Metropolitan Police Service.”
