Letter To Boris Johnson From Local Tories


Custody suite at Wimbledon police station

Dear Boris,

Following on from the concerns raised by Stephen Hammond MP and Councillor Debbie Shears, Leader of the Conservative Group, at last night’s Merton MOPAC meeting, we wish to reiterate our serious concerns regarding any closure of the custody suite at Wimbledon Police Station.

Wimbledon Police Station (right) is located in the heart of the town centre. It is 100 metres from the second busiest transport hub in south London after Clapham Junction, with interchanges of mainline rail, underground, tram and bus routes.

It is also just 50 metres from the start of a thriving night time economy, which due to the aforementioned transport interchange attracts people from a wide area of south London. At present police officers can walk from the areas with the borough's highest crime hotspots to the custody suite, therefore reducing the reliance on police vehicles, which we understand is one of the aims of the current MOPAC consultation. Wimbledon Police Station will be the only 24-hour station within Merton but the location of an out of borough custody suite would undermine its efficiency and effectiveness.

A trial of sharing a custody suite with Sutton has already been undertaken and was deemed
unworkable, with officers and cars being located away from the centre of Wimbledon when
needed.

Whilst we fully support the need to focus the Metropolitan Police's limited resources on
manpower and frontline officer numbers, this must not be to the detriment of efficient policing and the safety of the public, which we believe would be the case if any attempt was made to merge the custody suite at Wimbledon with Sutton or any other borough.

Kind regards

Stephen Hammond, MP for Wimbledon
Councillor Debbie Shears, Leader of Merton Conservative Group
Richard Tracey AM, London Assembly Member for Merton & Wandsworth

February 27, 2013