A police station in the borough may face closure in new plans from the Mayor of London.

Mayor Sadiq Khan has released the public access strategy for policing across London, naming Barnet Police Station, High Street, High Barnet, as one earmarked for closure.

Closure has been threatened once before however former Mayor Boris Johnson eventually decided to keep the station open.

Theresa Villiers, MP for Chipping Barnet, has challenged the Mayor's office over the allocation of resourcing in policing and is seeking to keep the station open for residents to speak face-to-face with officers, rather than travelling to the nearest station in Colindale.

Borehamwood Times: Theresa Villiers speaking to an officer in High BarnetTheresa Villiers speaking to an officer in High Barnet

She said: "A resident without a car in East Barnet village would have to make an hour’s journey involving two or three buses to get to the police station in Colindale.

"Expecting vulnerable elderly people to have to make this journey in order to report a crime is not acceptable."

Ms Villiers also said the borough gets a "raw deal" from the Mayor with the amount of funding and number of officers not reflecting the population.

She added: "I accept that the way the police engage with the public is changing and that police station front desks are not the only way to report a crime and get help from local officers.

"But I continue to believe that Barnet Police Station performs a much valued function for my constituents."

Detective Chief Supt Simon Rose said the Met Police is hoping to save money to keep front line officers by introducing "agile working" and reducing the number of buildings from around 400 to 100.

He said: "Something has to give and selling buildings to invest in the mobile working, such as iPad style devices to report and investigative crime, makes sense.

"To some degree it's buildings or officers and I know what I would prefer: to keep the officers."

Det Chief Supt Rose added if the decision goes ahead the police will still need to have a presence in the eastern parts of the borough for Safer Neighbourhood officer to patrol from and they had already planned on relocating some units as part of a new multi-agency partnership office with the local authority.

He added: "Other units can realistically be based anywhere.

"The Safer Neighbourhood officers are the important ones and we will be ensuring they have local bases near their wards where the parade and de-parade from."