Holborn and West Hampstead police stations could lose 999-cars

RESPONSE teams which attend emergency calls may be axed from two police stations in the borough, the New Journal can reveal.
Proposals to move Camden’s five response teams, currently based at Kentish Town,
Holborn and West Hampstead police stations, to one “super-station” are being considered by the borough’s most senior police officer.
The single patrol unit would be based at Kentish Town and could mean officers having to drive farther to 999 calls in the south and west of the borough.
Speaking at a meeting on Tuesday, borough commander John Suther­land insisted there would not be an increase in response times to emergency calls and that strong leadership was required “to make sure outlying areas don’t suffer”.
He stressed that nothing had been set in stone and that the proposal had been made on operational grounds and was not about cost-cutting.
But the move has raised fears that it could leave some areas unprotected and prompted questions about what would happen in the event of a major incident like the July 7 bombings.
Chief Superintendent Sutherland said: “The proposal, and it’s important to emphasise it’s only a proposal, is to consider a single patrol base in Kentish Town. We’re conducting an internal review but this is about making Camden safer.
“I understand there will be a degree of nervousness, but it has worked in other boroughs. We did it in Islington and it has been a positive experience. Good leadership is more difficult when your staff is spread across three different sites.”
He added: “The borough intelligence unit is also based at Kentish Town and if we want to give our staff the best possible daily briefing before they go out on patrol there is some sense in co-locating them with the intelligence unit.”
Patrol bases are where Camden’s 250 or so response officers – split into five units – start and finish every day.
Camden Conservative group leader Councillor Andrew Mennear said: “I would be worried about the implications for response times. Camden is geographically different to Islington because of the Heath. It means there are only a few ways to get to the north-west of the borough, and I think having one base in Kentish Town would slow things down.”
Derek Nesbitt, chairman of King’s Cross Safer Neighbourhoods Panel, said: “My initial reaction is that I’m a bit worried. Police will need Ferraris to get down here