The proposal to close down South Harrow Police station is a bolt out of the blue. As far as Harrow residents are concerned it is unacceptable. It should now become one of the general election issue for all the Parliamentary candidates standing in Harrow East and in Harrow West constituencies. Harrow which is an important London borough opposes such an action by the Metropolitan Police.
Harrow could be left with just one police counters under the Metropolitan Police's new estate plan. The force is proposing to shut the volunteer-run Pinner Police Station in Waxwell Lane, Pinner, and close the office hours crime reporting counter at Harrow Civic Centre in Station Road - itself created due to the closure of the counter at Harrow Police Station in Northolt Road, South Harrow. This would only leave the Harrow Central Police Station at Kirkland House in Peterborough Road, Harrow, which would open round the clock.
Rising knife crime is being caused by a cocktail of a reduction in stop and search, increased sales on the dark web of weapons such as the foot-long “zombie knife”, and a burgeoning culture of youth violence, Scotland Yard police chiefs have said.
Metropolitan police commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe ordered a reduction and better targeting of stop and search in 2011 in an effort to use it more effectively. The reports comes after a warning by the Inspectorate of Constabulary, the government’s police watchdog, that police in Britain are in a “potentially perilous state” due to the significant cuts to the force’s budget.
The Conservative Government’s austerity measures would see the Met lose £1 billion (US$1.25 billion) by 2020.) “It’s a lot of money and a massive change and as a result of that, I genuinely worry about the safety of London. We think we can expect to lose somewhere between 5,000 to 8,000 police officers,” Metropolitan Police Chief Bernard Hogan-Howe commented on the cuts to the London Evening Standard.“
Baldev Sharm
Rayners Lane, Harrow
