| WEN Response to Police consultation
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Response from West Ealing Neighbours to the Metropolitan Police Estate Asset Management Plan for Ealing.
West Ealing Neighbours is a residents group covering the West Ealing W13 part of the borough. We have members living in the Cleveland, Ealing Broadway, Elthorne, Walpole and Northfield wards.
Our two main concerns relate to the Safer Neighbourhoods teams and the provision of front counters for the public to contact and speak to the police.
Our specific comments on this report:
About Policing in Ealing (point 4) and Our Future Plans (point 5)
A word of caution about the growth in population. Some of this may well be temporary as the influx of East Europeans may slow down or reverse with the possibility of many moving eastwards as the building for the Olympics picks up speed. Equally, it is by no means certain that all the proposed regeneration plans for Ealing Broadway will go through as currently specified.
The front desk facility at Ealing Police Station is abysmal and has been so for years. The reception area is tiny and it's not unusual for members of the public to have to wait for hour upon hour before their enquiry is dealt with.
West Ealing is a community of some 32,000 residents. The only police ‘resident' in West Ealing are the Walpole and Elthorne Safer Neighbourhood police teams located in Sainsbury's supermarket. Oddly, this location is not listed anywhere in this report.
The consultation document (p 3) states that changes to the police estate will improve policing by ‘increasing public accessibility by being located closer to the communities the MPS serves'. Our view is that the current accessibility of the Elthorne and Walpole Safer Neighbourhood teams is very poor indeed. Both are in an office tucked away somewhere in the offices of Sainsbury's in Melbourne Avenue in West Ealing. These two teams are most definitely not accessible by the public in this location and WEN would like to see this situation changed. In addition, there is no locally based Safer Neighbourhood police presence in the Cleveland ward.
We feel very strongly that the police, both regular and Safer Neighbourhood teams must have a physical presence and front counter in the proposed regenerated Green Man Estate.
Currently the Green Man Estate remains a problem area for local crime. The Council plans to regenerate this estate and has in principle decided to demolish the current buildings and re-build the area from scratch. The new area would include a mix of social, affordable and commercial housing. The rebuild offers the police a golden opportunity to achieve two goals:
1. To reinforce the newly created community on this land by establishing from the outset a visible police presence. This will greatly reassure residents that the police plan to ensure the area is kept safe and so encourage a healthy new community to develop and thrive
2. To provide all residents in and around the centre of West Ealing a public counter for them to talk to the police, especially the Safer Neighbourhood teams, rather than have to find ways of tracking them down as presently happens. This again would encourage residents of West Ealing to see this newly developed estate as integral to our community and not the ghetto/no-go area that it is currently seen as.
Our Future Plans: Improved Patrol Facilities (point 7)
How will foot patrols be organised for West Ealing by police based in Acton and Southall? We assume patrols in this case means only those by car.
We are concerned that basing these patrol bases at the edges of the borough may mean a poorer service and response times.
Our Future Plans: Front Counters (point 8) It's not clear as to how splitting various functions will operate in practice. Would it mean three different counters at Ealing Police Station? Would all victim-only functions be dealt with at just one of the four borough stations?
David Highton
West Ealing Neighbours
9th February 2008
Email: david.highton@redcinnamon.co.uk
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| Last Updated ( Saturday, 09 February 2008 ) |
