Tory Government Cuts Close Police Stations

The Hillingdon Labour Group is completely and utterly dismayed at the prospect of the closure and sale of all but one of the Police stations in Hillingdon.  The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has been warning of the consequences of the continual cuts in Police funding from the Government / Home Office, who provide 75.2% of the funding for the Metropolitan Police Service.

The cut in central government funding has now led to proposals for each of London’s 32 boroughs to only have one Police station open, with any other Police stations closed and then sold off.  This means that within the whole of Greater London there will only be 32 Police stations.  There is also a plan to reduce the number of police officers and to move their operational control from being borough based to a tri-borough command.  Hillingdon is set to be part of a three-borough command with Hounslow and Ealing.

The Conservative administration in Hillingdon are being somewhat economical with the truth by accusing the Labour Mayor for this situation.  However, the whole issue has been created by the swathing cuts by the Conservative government.

After taking account of specific Government grants the planned MOPAC (Mayors Office for Police & Crime) spend in 2017/18 is £2,503.6 million. Of this the Mayor has allocated £29.6m of retained business rates and the allocation of the council tax precept in the sum of £592m, which for a Band D property in London is on average £206.13 p.a. Home Office general grant funding was £1,882.1m. The Mayor funds 24.8% of the net cost of the Met, with Home Office/Government funding 75.2%

On 19^th July 2017 the Mayor of London gave a stark warning on the consequences of further government funding cuts, an extract from the Mayors press release states: –

“Sustained real-terms Government cuts have left the Mayor and the Met no choice. Since 2010, more than £600m of savings have already been made. Front counters have closed, buildings have been sold, and 2,800 PCSOs and police staff posts have been lost. A further £400m of savings are needed by 2021 because the flat budget settlement provided by the Government fails to take any account of the increasing demand or inflationary pressure on policing.”

The full Press release from the Mayor can be found at the following link: –

https://www.london.gov.uk/press-releases/mayoral/mayor-calls-for-urgent-government-action

Cllr Peter Curling, The Leader of Hillingdon Labour group, said: –

“We urge the government to shake their magic money tree to find the money needed to keep our Police stations open and keep our residents safe.  We also urge the Hillingdon Conservatives to join us in supporting the Mayor’s call for the government to see sense and abandon their funding formula that is leading to even more cuts, closures and sell offs.”

Cllr Curling added: –

“It is particularly disappointing to see the local Conservatives trying to use this issue for petty party-political point scoring, rather than working together to ensure our residents are kept safe.”