Council leader calls for legal action against police station closures
Last week, the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC) announced that both Hornchurch and Rainham police stations along with Safer Neighbourhood bases (apart from Elm Park) across the borough will be closed.
Councillor Roger Ramsey has met with the Deputy Mayor for Policing, Sophie Linden and the Council has lobbied to save the borough’s public access points.
Councillor Ramsey, said:
“The outcome of MOPAC’s consultation is unacceptable and fails to consider the needs of our residents and of our population growth. This is why we will be looking at the prospect of a legal challenge. This is a short-sighted decision that will leave residents in the south of the borough with the need to travel to Romford for a police station in the borough with a front desk service.
“The Consultation Institute has said that MOPAC’s approach was ‘deeply flawed’ with ‘leading questions biased to elicit a particular answer’ and failed to seek ‘any demographic data to understand who responds’. This means that our residents’ voices have not been taken into consideration, which questions the purpose of this consultation as it seems a decision had already been made.
“The Council has offered to provide space for police use in outlying areas and will stick to that whatever happens.
“I urge local residents to send their comments to their local MPs, who I would encourage to raise this issue in Parliament.”