Willesden Green police station to go under the hammer tomorrow
Willesden Green police station - Credit: Archant
Estate agent will stop taking bids for the axed site which could become flats
Harrow Road police station. Picture: Polly Hancock - Credit: Archant
Two axed police stations could start the transformation to flats or schools as early as tomorrow after being put on the market last month.
Estate agent Knight Frank will stop taking bids for the axed Willesden Green police station tomorrow and has just put the Harrow Road station in Queen’s Park up for sale.
The final death knell for both stations comes months after their closure was confirmed.
No guide price has been named for the grade II listed Harrow Road building and 0.34 acre Willesden Green properties but the agent claims the sites have “residential potential”.
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Cllr Aslam Choudry, Brent Council’s lead member for crime prevention and public safety, said: “There’s a need for housing in Brent and there are 21,000 people on the waiting list.
“Building more housing is good but doing it at the expense of closing the police stations is totally wrong,” he added.
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The Harrow Road building covers 0.7 acres and takes up 25,087sq ft. It has been at the centre of fierce opposition to cuts to police in Brent and Westminster.
Local residents were also incensed by the Mayor of London’s plans to close Willesden Green station, which formerly housed sex crime unit Sapphire and the anti-social behaviour unit for the borough.
The smaller redbrick building is within the Willesden Green conservation area but could also become flats when the September bidding date is up.
Cllr Choudry slammed the decision to axe and sell off the borough’s fire stations as an “appalling act” and said he would be “doing more” to protest the closures.
“We are very concerned to be honest,” he said.
“This happened despite the fact that the mayor of London clearly said that there was not going to be any reduction in the number of police stations of the numbers of fire stations.”
When Boris Johnson, Mayor of London, announced the closures he said: “Putting more officers on the streets is key to driving down crime and boosting public confidence in the police and that is why it is at the heart of our plans for policing in the capital.
“In the current economic climate there is no denying that tough decisions will have to be made but policing in the capital is changing and we must change with it by creating a police force that is ready to tackle the issues that matter most to Londoners.”
