'Ealing Police Station to close and move to council office'

PLANS have been drawn up to relocate Ealing Police Station into a nearby council building, sparking fears of a cut in opening hours.

The station is one of 65 front counters under threat of closure across London in a bid to meet government budget cuts.

If Ealing Police Station, in Uxbridge Road, is shut its front counter and safer neighbourhood teams will be moved to Perceval House across the road. There are no cells or fast response police teams based at the site and those using the remaining offices would be transferred to Acton or Southall stations.

Onkar Sahota, London Assembly member for Ealing and Hillingdon, said he feared a reduced service at the new base. And believes plans by the Met to cut a quarter of all safer neighbourhood sergeants and 3,500 civilian staff across the capital by 2015 will weaken the Ealing force.

He said: "At the moment the public have 24 hour access, that won't be the case if the front counter moves to Perceval House. The Met Police is facing a dramatic 20 per cent budget cut and is in dire financial straits. The coalition government is cutting the police budget too far and too fast.

"In Ealing we have lost 93 PCSOs - this has reduced the number to less than half of what it was in 2010. We have 25 police officers fewer than we had two years ago, as well."

He is calling on the London mayor to negotiate with the government to reduce the scale of the cuts.

But the Met say the cuts will not affect service and say officer numbers will actually rise in the coming years. There will be more constables than ever before but less officers of senior ranks.

Borough Commander Andy Rowell insisted no decision has been made to close Ealing Police Station and an announcement about its future should be made by March.

He said: "If the front counter is reallocated it will be a great opportunity to have a public service hub with access to the police, local authority services and other support networks in one place. If we were to reduce opening hours we would support that with a myriad of additional opportunities to contact us."