The consultation on the planned closure of Hampstead and Kentish Town police stations and the removal of patrol officers from West Hampstead police station was published last week. Even though the consultation did not have the guts to directly ask people

The consultation on the planned closure of Hampstead and Kentish Town police stations and the removal of patrol officers from West Hampstead police station was published last week.

Even though the consultation did not have the guts to directly ask people if they agreed with the closures, the summary at least had the honesty to conclude that there was strong opposition to the closure of Hampstead and Kentish Town, and that "most respondents rejected the option of one centralised patrol base."

These findings come as no surprise to anyone involved in the campaign to save our local stations. I led a demonstration of around 200 people in February and have now collected around 1,500 signatures in opposition to the plans.

Public feeling is overwhelmingly against these plans. I am not surprised that Camden made up 55 per cent of the responses to the Met's property plans, even though we only make up three per cent of London's population.

Closing the police stations and removing patrol officers will deprive us of a local police presence. One patrol base for the whole borough will mean that it will take much longer to respond to 999 calls and the borough is already missing its 999 response target.

I've recently met senior members of the MPA to plead our case. They have said that they are thinking again about the plans for Camden, given the strength of feeling here. I hope that they listen to local people who oppose these closure plans and that we can maintain the visible police presence and multiple patrol bases that are so important.

Cllr Chris Philp

Conservative Parliamentary Candidate, Hampstead & Kilburn