600 police stations shut in eight years

LONDON — More than 600 police stations in England and Wales have been shut in the last eight years, a major British newspaper, The Sunday Times, reported on Sunday, saying that the central government’s funding cuts are to blame.

London has lost 100 police stations and Gloucestershire has lost 21 out of 28 stations.

Some forces have closed more than half their stations. In Gloucestershire, 21 out of 28 police stations, including Tetbury, Bourton-on-the-Water, and Moreton-in-the-Marsh, have shut.

Other cities, such as Bath and St Albans, do not have stations at all, a Sunday Times investigation has revealed.

The stations closure came after a 20 percent cut in funding since 2010, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies.

In Hungerford, a small town in west Berkshire, the police station has been axed and replaced with a base in the town’s fire station.

But the 5,000 locals in the area are told to report crime elsewhere, as it’s not designed to be open to the public.

A police officer reportedly told a local meeting: “There’s no doorbell here and we’re behind three sets of doors, so we won’t hear if someone knocks.”

Cleveland has shut 12 police stations since 2010 triggering protests from locals.

Hungerford isn’t alone — 24 of the 60 stations in the Thames Valley have shut in a drive to save 40 million pounds ($51.8 million).

They say a review had found that brick-and-mortar stations have little to do with policing as very few people walk into the station to report crime, instead opting to do it over the phone or online.

Yet in some areas, residents complained closures had worsened wait times.

Stark reality

In London, where more violent cases were reported in recent months, the number of “significant” calls where police failed to respond within an hour nearly tripled over the past three years.

A spokeswoman for the Mayor of London office said that closing police stations was the “stark reality of crippling government cuts”.

Meanwhile, the British Home Office said: “Police have the resources they need to carry out their vital work. However, we know the nature of crime is changing.

“That is why we provided a settlement that is increasing total investment in the police system by over 460 million pounds in 2018-19, including increased funding for local policing through council tax precept,” said the office.