A Liberal Democrat contender for London Mayor has pledged to reopen closed police stations in the capital by combining them with libraries or post offices.
Siobhan Benita is one of four Liberal Democrats who hope to be adopted by the party as its candidate for the 2020 mayoral election.
The former civil servant, who stood as an independent in the 2012 election, claimed Labour Mayor Sadiq Khan was running down community policing by closing police stations and creating larger borough command units.
She said: “All of that is sending a signal that police officers have no place in the community, you are getting fewer and fewer police officers who work day to day in their local area who know the local people and who people trust.”
One option, she said, was to locate police stations in other public service buildings at risk of closure such as libraries or post offices.
“There are lots of public services that people are trying to protect such as libraries and post offices. I think we should be looking at shared facilities, how we can combine them. Some of these local police stations are very small with a front counter but you do need that presence in the community,” she said.
Ms Benita, 47, who is being supported by former Met officer Leroy Logan, a one-time adviser to Mr Khan, added: “I realise there is not much money around so we have to think more creatively.”
Ms Benita, who is pro EU, co-authored the Youth Violence Commission report which recommended that London should adopt a public health-focused approach to tackling violence.
She said: “You cannot talk about the public health approach, which is about the community working together, if at the same time you are decimating community policing.”
She said the Mayor needed to put more emphasis on helping young people avoid a life of crime, while also carrying out enforcement to stop offending. “Otherwise you will end up doing enforcement for ever,” she said. She also wants a youth mayor and a London Youth Assembly to represent the views of young Londoners.
Her other priorities include tackling the number of empty properties in the capital, abolishing single-use plastic and launching “Tidy Up” London campaigns in local boroughs.
The three others in the race to be Lib-Dem mayoral candidate are Lewisham East parliamentary by-election candidate Lucy Salek, Asian businessman Dinesh Dhamija and economist Rob Blackie. The winner will be chosen by the end of the month.
