A review to be conducted by the Metropolitan Police might lead to a reprieve for High Barnet police station which was closed to the public some years ago and which is among several police stations said to be surplus to requirements.
Sir Mark Rowley, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, has told the Chipping Barnet MP Theresa Villiers that the force intends to “carefully consider” the future of buildings previously earmarked for sale.
Since 2017 the station has remained the base for local neighbourhood police teams and provided office space for other police personnel.
A strategy for policing the capital, which was announced in 2013 when Boris Johnson was Mayor of London, listed High Barnet as one of the stations that might be sold off to developers.
After Colindale became the police headquarters for the Borough of Barnet, High Barnet became one of 37 London police stations which lost its front counter service open to the public.
It is a substantial four-storey building, with extensive office space at the rear and parking for vehicles. It was constructed after the previous police station was demolished in the 1970s.
Over recent years, Ms Villiers and community groups in High Barnet have campaigned consistently for the retention of a police station in the High Street.
They believe that it is vital to maintain a town centre base for ward police officers and hope that it might re-open to the public one day.
If the station was sold off for redevelopment, a new base would have to be found for the safer neighbourhood teams which serve High Barnet, Barnet Vale, Underhill, and Totteridge.
Sir Mark gave the assurance the future of High Barnet police station was being looked at again when he met Ms Villiers and other Conservative MPs. The review will report back to him at the end of the summer.
Ms Villiers -- seen here after she handed in a petition with 1,000 signature calling for a reprieve for the station -- said that the Commissioner acknowledged the importance of police officers being based near the communities they serve.
“I feel this latest development means that further progress is being made in the campaign to change minds and keep the station as a place to locate officers serving in and around High Barnet,” said Ms Villiers.
“Some months ago, the Deputy Mayor accepted that if the police station was sold off, some alternative local premises would be provided for officers. The question must be: why lose Barnet police station in the first place?
“The station is needed and wanted by residents, preferably with a front counter open to the public. This announcement gives us a glimmer of hope this review may come to the conclusion that Barnet police station should be saved.”
Ms Villiers said the acting Borough Police Commander for Barnet, Chief Superintendent Dan Knowles, had also confirmed that the plan to sell the Barnet station was under review.
So too is the size of the neighbourhood ward police teams. Sir Mark says they will be enlarged following an increase in the number of officers in London resulting from the government’s undertaking to provide 20,000 extra officers nationally.
