What is the Met Police going to do about all its run-down stations in this era of cutbacks and economies? They had an opportunity to address this question five years ago and the resulting Estates Survey was so bad that the Mayor withdrew it as one of his first acts in 2008.
Last time round the Estate Management Survey produced separate reports for each borough. However, they were all so similar that there was little public confidence that the unique circumstances of each borough or station had been considered at all.
What came across clearly was a grand plan to sell off the Met’s freehold estate in order to finance the leasing of newer premises, despite/because of the fact that many of the stations occupy prime locations in their communities. This made sense to the Met’s management as they have reorganised policing in recent years and chucked out the districts within the borough in favour of borough-wide operations. They decided that each borough would best be served from a single central station – ‘the fortress’ to you and me.
The sop to the anxious public was the creation of Safer Neighbourhood Teams on a ward by ward basis, providing something like the nostalgic ‘bobby on the beat’. Having been sceptical initially, I have to say that in my former ward of Kentish Town at least, the SNT are doing a great job and are increasingly popular.
Now there are rumours that these Teams will be axed as part of the cuts, though this may be only scare-mongering. As campaigners, we clearly need to lobby on behalf of this last vestige of community policing – a natural alignment to our community politics.
Even more worrying, now the election is over, is the threat that the Met will go back to their plan of selling freehold station sites and buildings. Lots of lovely cash coming in to pay for this year’s modernisation programme! But an end to local police forces housed in the middle of their community and walking up and down the same streets as residents.
From a community, security and intelligence-gathering perspective it makes no sense. Perhaps it demonstrates that local crime solving is low status and low priority in the Met these days, compared with the glamour of anti-terrorism and organised crime.
Surely it makes no economic sense either. Sale and leaseback can be justified in a business that can move anywhere, and whose prime requirements can change dramatically, like a retailer or even a telecoms supplier. But the police exist to protect the communities of which they are part. They are always going to be based on local streets because that is where crimes occur daily.
If the Met are allowed to sell off their freehold sites now, what will happen if the next generation want to go back to policing within the community? They will no longer have local sites to use, in ideal locations. The Fire Service are not selling their stations because they know they could not acquire comparable locations now.
And if the Met use one-off capital receipts now to cushion against cuts and to pay for this generations modernisation and upgrade, how will they be funded in the next generation, when they will have no capital assets left and equal pressure on their budget? I’m not arguing against modernisation, but in favour of keeping, upgrading and making better use of well-located sites that are a gift from previous generations to us and our children.
