Petition to keep police front counter in Kensington reaches 500 signatures

By Owen Sheppard, Local Democracy Reporter

North Kensington residents are calling for a permanent Met Police base in the area amid concerns that a small front counter may close.

The front counter, which opened two years ago at the Royal Studios in Lancaster Road, will see its temporary lease expire in June.

A petition calling on the Mayor of London to extend the lease has reached over 500 signatures.

Claire van Helfteren, who set up the petition, said officers need to be based locally so that they are familiar with the area, which can have problems with gangs.

But a spokesperson for Mayor Sadiq Khan said today that no decision will be made until after a public consultation has taken place.

This will happen after the mayoral  and London Assembly elections on May 6, meaning the issue could influence how locals cast their votes.

Kensington has swung between Labour and the Conservatives in the last two general elections, and Mr Khan’s rival Shaun Bailey is from the area.

Tory MP for Kensington Felicity Buchan is also running a petition.

Ms van Helfteren, 55, who chairs Kensington and Chelsea’s Independent Advisory Group for the police, said: “This front counter was opened after Grenfell and we hoped it would be a temporary measure before something permanent could be found.

“We absolutely need a police station in North Kensington. Police need to be able to walk into an area and take the temperature and realise when tensions are building between gangs, and they should be able to get to know local families and their kids.”

She continued: “Of course the plan left by Boris Johnson when he was Mayor was that there would only be one police front counter in each borough. But Sadiq Khan has been in power for five years now.”

The spokesperson from the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime said: “A consultation period will begin later this year with residents to determine the future of the front counter at Royalty Studios.

“No changes will be made to the front counter until the consultation has happened and the views of the community listened to and taken into account.”

Ms van Helfteren also hoped that a solution could be found by setting up a community trust that could purchase premises for a police front counter, as well as community facilities such as a food bank.

The petition can be found here.