Plea to Boris Johnson to change his mind
Local politicians have written to London Mayor Boris Johnson to protest about plans to close the custody suite at Wimbledon police station.
The Mayor's review of policing across the capital, with a plan to save £500m during the next three years, would see the local custody suite being closed and Merton police would share with another borough.
The plans also include reducing Mitcham police station to part-time and cutting one-third of police community support officers (PCSOs) across London in a shakeup of safer neighbourhood teams (SNTs). Each of Merton's 20 wards would be left with a minimum of one police constable, and one PCSO.
Boris Johnson's deputy mayor for policing, Stephen Greenhalgh, explained the cuts at a packed meeting at the Civic Centre in Morden on Tuesday (February 26).
Now Conservative politicians, Stephen Hammond (Wimbledon MP), Debbie Shears (Leader of the Tory Group on Merton council) and Richard Tracey (London Assembly Member for Merton & Wandsworth) have asked Boris to re-think the custody suite plans.
In their letter, they say a trial of sharing a custody suite with Sutton was unworkable and a merger with any borough would be detrimental to effective policing.
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March 3, 2013
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