The police station on Parchmore Road which has sat vacant for five years will now NOT  open because it will cost too much to bring it back in to use, The Chronicle understands. 

The cash strapped Met has wasted the equivalent of the yearly salary of 10 PC’s on rent on this empty building.

Local people will see this as a major set back in tackling anti social behaviour, street drinking, public urination, begging, rough sleeping and  general lawlessness.

The Safer Neighbourhood Teams covering Thornton Heath and surrounding areas moved out of the building in 2013 –  three years after the station opened in 2010.

Though it never offered a front counter service for the public, it provided facilities for  over 30 officers that worked as part of the SNT.

In a bid to cut costs the police moved to Gipsy Hill police station in Lambeth. However,  the Met carried on paying out rent for the empty building on the corner of Parchmore Road. 

According to the managing agents the  lease for a year’s commercial rent is £60,000 so times that by five and the Met has potentially wasted as much as £300,000 for an unused building which will now sit vacant for a further two years as the lease does not  expire until  June 2020.

Street drinking is a particularly issue and last month there was a ‘serious incident’ involving street drinkers outside Tesco which resulted in police and paramedics being called. Violent crime is also rising.

In a bid to tackle growing levels of ASB the council has issued two Public Space Protection Orders (PSPO) in Woodville Road and Thornton Heath Rec. 

At a meeting of Thornton Heath Community Action Team Supt Colin Carswell, the new Borough Commander Unit superintendent for Neighbourhoods who came to speak about his role was unaware of plans to reopen the police station but explained that the requirement of SNT officers was that they only needed to be 25 minutes from 25 per cent of their ward.