Police station closure consultation
Love Wimbledon has responded to the Mayor of London’s consultation on the closure of Wimbledon Police Station.
Over the past five years we have built a very strong partnership with the local police team to reduce crime in Wimbledon. Building business links, driving forward crime prevention initiatives such as Pubwatch and townlink radio have assisted businesses and the police in keeping crime low. Whilst we understand there are savings to be made we do not believe that the closure of this police station will assist in effective policing of the town and may demonstrate additional costs to the operations of the team.
Wimbledon is the economic heart of the borough, with the 21st busiest station in the country, strong retail and cultural offer as well as a vibrant night time economy. This is all in addition to the eyes of the world being on us for The Championships every year, bringing crowds and publicity. Mitcham police station is not large enough to accommodate Merton Police, requires significant renovation works and will undoubtedly lead to wasted officer time and delayed response rates. Helen Clark Bell stated “This is not about keeping a front desk open for the reporting of crime, this is about selling the family silver for short term gain, which once sold, will never be recouped. We have raised our concerns about the potential operational impact but also the knock on effect this could have on the long term policing of the busiest town centre in Merton”.