The Kidbrooke Village development is to get its own police base, two and a half years after the murder of schoolteacher Sabina Nessa in a nearby park.
Greenwich Council has agreed to allocate £782,000 of money received from Berkeley Homes, which is building the estate, towards the office. Between 16 and 25 officers could be based there, but this is “subject to a strategic review by the Met”, the council has warned.
Berkeley agreed to give £1.4 million towards emergency services facilities when Kidbrooke Village was first given planning permission 15 years ago, replacing the old Ferrier Estate.
“Given the scale of the development and previous incidents at the location, it has been agreed that a facility will be created on site in one of the ground floor commercial units,” a council report published last week said.
When completed, Kidbrooke Village is expected to have more than 5,000 homes and 15,000 residents. Berkeley has agreed to lease the unit to the Metropolitan Police for 25 years at a peppercorn rent.
The office would be staffed into the late evening and while there will not be a front counter, the public “will be welcome to engage with officers at the venue”, the council said.
The agreement to open the office comes after lobbying from residents and is a rare expansion of face-to-face police services after many years of cuts to police stations under both Boris Johnson and Sadiq Khan’s mayoralties.
The only staffed police station in Greenwich borough is at Plumstead, while Kidbrooke Village’s nearest police station is at Lewisham. Eltham police station was demolished last year after closing without objection from Greenwich Council.
Sabina Nessa, who taught at Rushey Green primary school in Catford, was attacked in Cator Park in September 2021 while on her way to meet a friend in the Depot pub. Her body was found the following evening.
Koci Selamaj, an Albanian-born garage worker, was jailed for life two years ago with a minimum term of 36 years for Nessa’s murder, after refusing to come to the Old Bailey for his sentencing.
Last week he admitted attacking two prison officers at Franklands Prison, County Durham. He will be sentenced in June.
You must be logged in to post a comment.