Following news from the London Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC) that they have decided to close the police's public counter at Marlowe House in Sidcup, Louie French MP has met with new Borough Superintendent for Bexley, Superintendent Simon Corbin, to raise concerns on the behalf of local residents and has today launched a new crime survey for local residents to have their say.
The decision to close the public front counter taken by MOPAC has come as a surprise to local residents, especially many of the community volunteers who have given hundreds of hours behind the counter supporting the police over multiple years at Marlowe House.
The reasons provided by the police and MOPAC focus largely on the safety of volunteers behind the counter and MOPAC's Public Access Strategy, which highlights limited scope to safely accommodate multiple members of the public in Marlowe House.
Louie has pressed the police on these matters and asked that a review be conducted into whether the layout of Marlowe House can be adjusted to overcome these issues. Louie has also made very clear that he will fight the London Mayor all the way if he tries to remove further police resources from Sidcup, following the closure of the Welling police base, the 2018 merger of Bexley's policing resources with higher crime areas in Greenwich and Lewisham, and the local Conservatives successful campaign to save Bexleyheath police station.
Commenting on the news, Louie said:
"I share local residents concerns over the closure of the front counter at Marlowe House and now is the opportunity for local residents to have their say on local crime and policing via my new crime survey.
Despite being given even more funding by central Government, the Mayor of London has continued to dramatically increase his share of council tax (up 57% since 2016), but he continues to short-change Bexley residents in terms of our fair share of both policing and transport resources. And this is even before we consider the deeply unfair and unpopular ULEZ expansion, which will hammer local businesses, families and emergency service workers in Bexley.
We have fought hard over many years to stop the Mayor of London closing more of our police bases in Bexley and we will continue to do so alongside my campaign to end the tri-borough policing model which continues to negatively impact police resources in Bexley. Please do complete my local crime survey so that I can represent your views".
