Save the Front Desk at Lavender Hill Police Station
We are shocked to have learned of proposals by the Mayor of London and Metropolitan Police to close the public-facing police desk on Lavender Hill.
Confidence in policing is critical, and many local people will be extremely anxious about this plan. If Sadiq Khan’s plans proceed, residents will have to travel either north to Brixton or south to Kingston to speak to the police in person.
While many victims or witnesses of crime now choose to file reports online, having a physical desk that people can visit is reassuring for residents and a useful base of operations for effective community policing. This is particularly important for elderly and vulnerable crime victims or those suffering from domestic abuse.
We have serious questions for the Met, the Mayor, and our Labour Council, about whether they can maintain an adequate local policing presence in light of these proposed changes.
Locally, crime is on the rise. Each week, we are inundated with messages from residents raising cases of phone theft, vehicle theft, shoplifting and burglaries. The area around Clapham Junction has also become the Borough’s hotspot for antisocial behaviour.
We are already seeing far too many instances of our police being taken out of the area and sent to neighbouring Lambeth and Central London. This will surely only increase with the closure of the station.
Long-time residents will recall that the station was also at risk several years ago. Thanks to hard work by the then-Conservative Council, those proposals were dropped in 2021.
We need your help, once again, to fight these proposals.
Please sign our petition, which we will submit to the Mayor of London, to oppose this closure.
We will update residents as soon as we have more information.
We’ve fought the battle to keep the station open before - and won. We will do all we can to protect it from the Labour’s policing cuts again now.
Wandsworth Conservatives