As my constituents will likely know, thanks to the sterling work of Hillingdon Council, Uxbridge Police Station has been saved from closure. This has been welcome by many in Ruislip, Northwood, and Pinner, as well as those across the whole of Hillingdon. I welcome the Mayor’s sudden U-turn on this matter and applaud all of my conservative colleagues who have been leading this challenge.
Two weeks ago, I raised this issue with the Prime Minister during his weekly session of Prime Minister’s Questions. At the time, the Mayor was resolute that the station’s closure would be going ahead. Thanks to the work of Cllr Steve Tuckwell, among others, this station will now remain open for the foreseeable future.
In Home Office questions this afternoon, I asked the Minister about the Mayor’s U-turn and raised the support already given by Hillingdon Council to keep the doors open. As I set out, in 2017 the council offered to buy the site at market rate and provide a £500,000 revenue contribution and leaseback arrangement, so that those valuable services could continue to be available. At the time, the Mayor said that this was completely impossible and yet he has now chosen to reverse his decision, coincidentally at the same time that the Uxbridge by-election is entering a critical stage.
In his response, the Minister thanked Steve Tuckwell and Hillingdon Council for their work on this matter. The Minister went on to urge Sadiq Khan to go further and do a U-turn on his decision to shut police stations across London.
