8:20am Friday 26th August 2011
COMMUNITIES have reacted angrily to plans to close eight police stations in Colchester and Tendring to the public.
Front desks at West Mersea, Copford, Wivenhoe, Ipswich Road in Colchester, Mistley, Brightlingsea, Walton and Thorpe stations will close in March next year under Essex Police proposals.
West Mersea mayor John May said: “It’s a sorry state of affairs.
“We are nine miles from Colchester and the road on and off the island is covered over by the tide a lot.”
Fellow town councillor Wendy Bixby said: “The police are working in difficult circumstances and doing the best job they can.
“In an ideal world, we would all want a police station with a front desk. We are a rural community and like to handle things on a face-to-face basis.”
Julie Young, Colchester councillor for Wivenhoe, said she was concerned cuts were being made at a time when levels of crime and disorder were rising in her town. She added: “We expect there to be additional resources to sort this out.
“Colchester has been short-changed. We are the biggest borough in Essex and we have one main police station.”
Fellow Wivenhoe resident, Peter Cook said: “There has been a bout of crime down here recently.
“The fact they may be reducing police cover can only be bad for local residents.”
However, Wivenhoe mayor Robert Needham was less concerned about the moves.
He said: “We have already experienced a little bit of a shift and some reduction in hours after they move to the fire station in April.
“Generally speaking, people tend to use to telephone to report things to the police anyway.
“If money has to be saved this seems to be a way of saving cash without reducing front line services.”
Robert Dunston, chairman of St John’s Residents’ Association, in Colchester, said his estate’s local station, in Ipswich Road, served 13,000 people on the St Johns and High Woods estates.
He added: “It is one they should not lose.”
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