Plumstead police station will lose its front counter under Scotland Yard cutbacks – meaning residents in Greenwich borough will need to go to Lewisham, Bexleyheath or Bromley if they want to report a crime in person.
Just 20 police counters will be left across London to save £7 million from a Metropolitan Police funding gap of £260 million.
The cuts have left Sir Sadiq Khan accused of breaking a pledge to keep a police counter open in each of London’s 32 boroughs. Of the five southeast London boroughs, Greenwich will be the only one without a front counter, with Walworth station surviving for Southwark.
In his election manifesto last year, the London mayor pledged to “ensure the Met is able to effectively respond to the public, including maintaining a 24-hour police front office counter in every borough”.
However, the Met has now confirmed that the number will be cut from 37 to 20 to save £7 million. The force is wrestling with a £260 million funding gap.
Assistant Commissioner Matt Twist told the London Assembly that crime reporting at station counters had reduced to just five per cent “as people have shifted to the use of phones and online means”.
He said: “At some front counters, we see less than two and a half crimes a day reported. At the busiest, in Charing Cross, we see 15 crimes.
“The average is four crimes a day reported across three shifts, which are often staffed by two people.
“We’ve made deliberate choices to protect neighbourhood policing and services that matter most to Londoners.
“This is about making the Met more accessible and visible in neighbourhoods at a time when the organisation is shrinking – and to do so, we need to cut the pie a bit differently.
“We are making the decision to reduce an underused resource to allow us to continue to strengthen neighbourhood policing teams.”
Khan was not present for the extraordinary meeting at City Hall, instead sending his deputy mayor for policing and crime, Kaya Comer-Schwartz, to face questions alongside Twist.
Thomas Turrell, the Conservative assembly member for Bexley and Bromley, asked if it was “irresponsible” for the mayor to have made the commitment in last year’s manifesto.
Comer-Schwartz said: “The mayor’s manifesto is clear about the importance of restoring visible neighbourhood policing and building safer, more confident communities in London. The mayor has shown a dedication to keeping Londoners safe.”
Twist confirmed that Khan’s front counter pledge, which featured in the New Met For London Plan written two years ago, was broken due to a lack of funding.
“We could not have forseen that two years ago, the scale of the gap was going to be as big as it was at the end of 2024,” he said.
“Savings have to be made somewhere – this is the least worst option. Looking at the overall financial picture, which is really challenging – if we can save £7 million by reducing a service for which demand has reduced significantly over the last decade, that seems like the right thing to do.”
Residents will still be able to contact police from phones inside the stations where counters have been closed.
Conservative leader Susan Hall accused Khan of being a “coward” by sending his deputy mayor to face the London Assembly.
Later, Comer-Schwartz, who admitted she found out about the scale of the cuts “in June or July”, could not give a guarantee that every borough would retain at least one police station.
Liberal Democrat assembly member Hina Bokhari responded: “It begs the question really, what is the point of having a deputy mayor for policing and crime if you are not going to intervene on behalf of Londoners when these massive changes are being proposed.”
A Met spokesperson said: “Londoners tell us they want to see more officers on our streets. The decision to reduce and close some front counters will save £7 million and 3,752 hours of police officer time per month allowing us to focus resources relentlessly on tackling crime and putting more officers into neighbourhoods across London.”
In Greenwich, the main police base is now at Warspite Road in Woolwich. A community policing hub recently opened at Kidbrooke Village, while a local base on the Coldharbour Estate in Mottingham was recently saved from closure, with Bromley officers using it alongside their Greenwich colleagues.
Earlier this year it was confirmed that the specialist Royal Parks unit, which covers Greenwich Park, is to close with its officers moving to local police teams instead.
The 20 desks that will remain are: Romford, Charing Cross, Acton, Brixton, Lewisham, Bromley, Sutton, Islington, Wembley, Colindale, Stoke Newington, Ilford, Forest Gate, Kingston, Hounslow, Walworth, Bexleyheath, Croydon, Wood Green and Pinner.
Updated on Sunday to remove a reference to 24/7 front counters – they aren’t all open 24/7.
Additional reporting by Darryl Chamberlain. Kumail Jaffer is the Local Democracy Reporter covering London’s mayor and assembly, based at MyLondon. The Local Democracy Reporting Service is a BBC-funded initiative to improve the coverage of councils in the local media.
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