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Police argument nothing more than a cop-out
• I MUST take issue with Mark Heath’s comments (Top cop’s warning on stations, December 27).
The new Estates Strategy has been handled by the MPS (Metropolitan Police Service) as a whole, by the MPS Property Division in particular, and by the MPA (Metropolitan Police Authority) in its consultation format.
Mark wrote a page or two of the final document to suit his own personal policy, it is true, but that was in 2005. He also attended a specific meeting at Hampstead police station in 2005. Naturally, it has been troublesome to parry the comments of the community and councillors while the MPS has dithered, delayed and finally delegated to a PR company over a two or even three-year period, and we all have some sympathy on that score .
However, at the end of the day, I cannot remember anyone trying to sidetrack the police from their primary duty of securing the safety of the community in Camden.
Politicians have opened up the discussions of the future of policing after much research and investigation, time wasted often after obfuscation by the MPS themselves. Alan Croney, head of the MPS Property Division, even stated in the Camden Town Hall Chamber in late 2005 that he saw no point in consulting the public, in reply to my verbal request for more information.
That is what I would call “hijacking the debate”.
NIGEL STEWARD
Chair of Hampstead Town Ward Safer Neighbourhood Panel
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