Calls to most Westminster police stations go unanswered - LibDem research reveals

8.50.01pm BST (GMT +0100) Sun 25th Mar 2007

Residents should be able to call their local police stations

Five out of seven police stations in Westminster did not answer non-emergency phone calls in a test carried out by Liberal Democrats on the London Assembly. The situation in Westminster is far worse than the London average.

The research into whether and how quickly police stations answered non-emergency calls found that across London as a whole 54% (76 out of 141) of police stations answered, with the average wait until the call is answered of just 20 seconds.

In Westminster however calls to five stations - Belgravia, Charing Cross , Marylebone, Paddington Green, and West End Central - went unanswered. In just two - Harrow Road and St John's Wood - was the call picked up, with a wait of 40 seconds and five seconds respectively. This performance meant that Westminster came 26th out of the capital's 32 boroughs.

Reacting to the shocking results, local Liberal Democrat Mark Blackburn said:

"Only last week, the local LibDems revealed that police officer numbers in Westminster have fallen over the last two years. Now, LibDem research reveals that non-emergency calls to five out of seven of the area's police stations went unanswered.

"If your call to your local police station goes unanswered then you will lose confidence in the police. That is not good. Perhaps worse however the police stand to miss information and intelligence that may help them catch criminals or even stop crimes from happening in the first place.

"This is bad news, and these shocking results need to be improved, and quickly."

The calls to the non-emergency telephone numbers of every police station in London were carried out by Liberal Democrats on the London Assembly between 26 February and 17 March 2006.