METROPOLITAN POLICE CONSULTATION

Published on Wed 28th Nov 2007

This week the Metropolitan Police published their plans for the future of police stations across London for consultation. So far an 'Asset Management Plan' has been published for 15 boroughs.

These Plans set out proposals for the future location of safer neighbourhood teams, custody centres, patrol facilities, front counters and office accommodation for each borough. The plans also include proposals to close a number of police stations where these are no longer 'fit for purpose'. Copies are available on line http://www.mpa.gov.uk/issues/estate/default.htm#amp at police stations and local libraries.

The closure of police stations is a contentious issue, however, the Met has given an assurance that no police station will be closed until the replacement is operational.

Another area of concern is the proposals to replace the custody cells currently attached to individual police stations with borough-wide 'custody centres', each with at least 30 cells. The location of these custody centres is proving contentious.

The Met currently owns 600 buildings in London, worth £1.7 billion. About a third of these are old run down borough police stations, which are inefficient to run and offer limited use and accessibility. There is no doubt that a rationalisation of the estate is overdue, however this must be done in full consultation with local communities.

I have serious concerns because in my view this is more of an public information exercise than a public consultation. Each 'Asset Management Plan' is between 18-20 pages long and includes 8 non specific questions buried throughout the text.

Any organisation serous about consulting widely would a) advertise the consultation in local papers; b) hold public meetings to discuss the plans; c) ask sensible questions d) provide an easy to use form for the public to complete and e) provide a freepost address for the return of consultation documents

Burying 8 inappropriate questions in a lengthy consultation document and asking people to respond by mail or phone without making it easy for them to do so almost guarantees that the only people who will respond will be the articulate middle classes rather than the cross section of society we want to hear from.

Graham Tope and I would like to hear what you think about the plans for your local area. I will feed this information back to the Metropolitan Police Authority.