In eight weeks time Police will move out of the Police Station on East Hill Road in preparation for its partial demolition and replacement with 22 flats.
The building is crumbling and too big for the needs of the small neighbourhood policing team based there, but this move, which follows the Police Authority winning planning permission on appeal, is both a shame for the character of the area and concerning as to the impact this will have on local policing.
The intention is that one of the units constructed on the site will act as a temporary police station at which our 2 PCs and 2 PCSOs will be based, but while construction work takes place they are decamping to Caterham which is nowhere near as convenient as Oxted an must therefore have some impact on the time they will be able to spend on the beat. This is acceptable as a short term arrangement, but what we must be on our guard for is another 'X-Ray' fiasco whereby having 'temporarily' left Oxted they never manage to return.
