Closing Met Police counters a 'difficult' choice

Bethnal Green is one of the front counter closures that could begin at the end of the year, the Met said

Almost half of police station front counters across London will be closed in a bid to save money, the Metropolitan Police Service has said.

The force plans to reduce the number of front counters where the public can speak to officers from 38 to 20, and cut the number of them open 24 hours a day from 32 to 18.

Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner Matt Twist told the London Assembly on Wednesday that the closures would save £7m a year but were "difficult choices".

The proposals, which could begin by the end of the year, form part of the force's plan to make £260m worth of savings by reducing services and about 1,700 officer and staff roles.

The plan would break a pledge from both the mayor and The Met to have a counter staffed 24/7 in each of the capital's 32 boroughs.

The Met first began closing its front counters in 2013 - when London had nearly 140 of them.

Then mayor Boris Johnson closed 65 of them - and in 2017 current mayor Sir Sadiq Khan closed a further 38.

These closures left nearly all boroughs with only one counter open 24 hours a day.

Shadow home secretary Chris Philp said Londoners would be less safe as a result of the changes.

Mr Twist told the London Assembly that the force only realised how bad its finances were late last year.

"With a £260m black hole in our budget, it's inevitable that some of the choices we're having to make will change the way we police London and will be unpopular with some people," he said.

"We need to make difficult choices and prioritise," he said.

"This essentially comes down to us having to choose between keeping officers on London's streets, where they can respond to the public, or retaining the current position on all front counters, which may be a symbolic point of access but are largely underutilised, especially overnight."

'In decline'

Mr Twist said front counter usage had been in decline since 2012, when 12% of all reported crime came in via station offices.

Now approximately 5% of crime is reporting on front counters, he said.

This equates to about 50,000 of the million crimes reported in London annually.

He said that while the Metropolitan Police force was reducing in size, it was being reshaped to place more policing presence on London's streets.

"These decisions are about making the Met more accessible and visible in neighbourhoods when the organisation is shrinking," he said.

The Met said that under its current the proposal, the counters that would close were:

1. Barking Learning Centre, Barking and Dagenham

2. Bethnal Green, Tower Hamlets

3. Chingford, Waltham Forest

4. Church Street, Westminster

5. Dagenham, Barking and Dagenham

6. Edmonton, Enfield

7. Hammersmith, Hammersmith and Fulham

8. Harrow

9. Hayes, Hillingdon

10. Kentish Town, Camden

11. Kensington, Kensington and Chelsea

12. Lavender Hill, Wandsworth

13. Mitcham, Merton

14. Plumstead, Greenwich

15. Royalty Studios, Kensington and Chelsea

16. Tottenham, Haringey

17. Twickenham, Richmond

18. Wimbledon, Merton

It also proposed to re-open the front counter in Wood Green, Haringey, to replace the Edmonton closure.