One of the reasons Hornchurch & Upminster remains an attractive place to live, work and raise a family is that it has a reputation for being one of London’s safest areas. I’m determined to keep our community safe by working with the police and others to tackle crime.
No two parts of the constituency are the same when it comes to tackling crime. From my fight to save Hornchurch police station to working with retailers to crack down on shoplifting in Harold Hill, I’m working across our area to tackle different issues where they arise.
What I’m campaigning on:
- I’m opposing Mayor Khan’s decision to sell Hornchurch Police Station. In 2023, I ran a petition gaining 1,500 signatures from local people opposing the sale. Read the latest update here.
- I continue to work with the local police in Harold Hill as part of their ‘Clear, Hold, Build’ scheme, as well as with local retailers to keep driving down crime in the area. We’ve seen great initial results (see below) and we need to keep up the pressure.
- Keeping a policing presence in our communities is vitally important, not only so that our local police force have a base to work out of, but also as a strong deterrent for would be criminals. We delivered extra police officers under the last government’s big police recruitment drive, but I now want the Mayor to make sure outer boroughs like Havering get a greater share of the Met’s officers.
What we’ve achieved:
- Back in 2019, we secured extra police presence from the British Transport Police at various tube and railway stations in our area to tackle a rise in criminal behaviour.
- In 2018, I helped the London Borough of Havering to secure an option to purchase Hornchurch police station in the event the Met Police chose to sell the site. We hoped that this would ensure we kept a police presence at the site on a long-term basis.
- In 2023, I helped to persuade the Met Police to suspend their sale of Hornchurch Police Station, pending their estates strategy due to be published in 2024. This followed my petition which was signed by over 1,500 local people.
- During the last Parliament, the Conservative Government delivered on its promise to provide 20,000 more police officers. Locally, this has meant that there are 254 more police officers in our local Borough Command Unit, keeping our streets safe.
- In 2021, Parliament passed the Domestic Abuse Act, a new piece of legislation which would toughen up the law to deal with the perpetrators of domestic abuse.
