Conservative London Assembly Member, Thomas Turrell, has challenged the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan on the controversial plans to close the Mottingham, Coldharbour and New Eltham Police Base on William Barefoot Drive.
Earlier this year documents revealed that the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC) planned to exit the lease on the base on William Barefoot Drive and move officers further away from the community, basing them at a new base in Kidbrooke. This prompted Conservative Councillors Matt Hartley and Roger Tester to launch a new petition to save the base. Local Conservative councillors worked with local residents and community groups to defeat a previous plan to close the base from the Mayor in 2017.
The plans would mean that all of Greenwich’s police base presence would be located in the north of the borough with local neighbourhood teams having to travel by bus to places like Eltham and Mottingham to patrol. Local people are concerned this would mean a further reduced presence of the police in communities in the south of the borough.
At Septembers Mayor Question Time, Conservative Assembly Member Thomas Turrell challenged the Mayor on the plans. The Mayor denied that there was a “one in, one out” policy towards police bases and promised that the Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime would look into the closure. Thomas also called on the Mayor to investigate if the base could be used to also serve Mottingham and Chislehurst in Bromley, which are areas the Conservatives have been campaigning for a new police base.
Councillor Matt Hartley, who represents Mottingham, Coldharbour and New Eltham on Greenwich Council said:
“This is the second time that the Coldharbour Police Base has been placed under threat of closure by Sadiq Khan – and it’s no surprise that 1,500 residents have signed our petition against the plans. The police base on William Barefoot Drive plays a crucial role in ensuring effective neighbourhood policing in the south of the borough, and any move to base our officers from the new Kidbrooke base risks leaving local communities less safe. I hope the Met will step back from the brink, like they did in 2017, and listen to the strength of residents’ views on this.”
Thomas Turrell AM added:
“Neighbourhood policing is in crisis in London. Officers are frequently taken out of the neighbourhoods they are assigned to other duties in central London, like policing protests. The Met Police Commissioner, Sir Mark Rowley, is working to address this but closing more bases means more officers waiting for the bus instead of patrolling the streets. Mottingham needs a stronger police presence, so I do not just want this base kept open but also to be used by Officers in Bromley to enhance the police presence across all of Mottingham.”
