The rumours about a possible closure of East Dulwich Police Station have circulating for weeks now.  I and my colleagues have avoided fuelling those rumours  whilst we  sought reassurances from the Borough commander. But those reassurances have not come  and on Friday my fellow East Dulwich Councillor, Jonathan Mitchell, went public in the South London Press with our belief that the police station has already been ear-marked for closure.

The rumours stem from the fact that the Labour-run Metropolitan Police Authority has ordered a review of all stations with a view to selling existing premises to fund new custody centres in London.

We also know that Police Officers and others have been tasked to go around actively looking for accommodation that the Police can relocate to  if and when they move out of East Dulwich Police Station.

We wrote  to the Borough Commander about this matter during the summer but we did not receive a very reassuring response. The opportunity to quosh  the persistent rumours that the East Dulwich Police Station may close was conspicuous by its absence.  

Hundreds  of East Dulwich residents have been supporting the Lib Dem campaign to make East Dulwich a proper working police station - open 24hours a day, 7 days a week. As local councillors,  we have been pressing the for the police to look at ways of making it more viable –like using the station as a base for the council run Community Warden scheme. 

No doubt a decision to flog off the police station will be accompanied by some half baked proposal for a ’safer neighbourhood team base’    The Liberal Democrats are clear that a we need a proper working, staffed police station in our neighbourhood that will make reporting crime easier.  This is what we will continue to fight for. An Peckham based operation with a tokenistic Dulwich outpost will never provide the service this community deserves.