Residents have been given assurance that they will have a 24-hour police station in operation in their borough, despite drastic cuts to the police service.

Simon Ovens, borough commander for Harrow, confirmed that South Harrow police station will remain open as a number of police buildings face closure.

However, Pinner police station and Edgware police stations will be shut down, as will the seven neighbourhood bases across the borough – these will be replaced by three new ward hubs, with the locations still to be determined.

Martin Tunstall, from the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime, explained that the decisions ultimately boiled down to the usefulness of police buildings against the usefulness of police officers.

“We don’t want to be telling you that we’re cutting police numbers and closing police stations but every pound we spend by keeping a building open is a pound we have to cut from police numbers. There are very few other choices left,” he said.

Mr Ovens said he appreciated that closing police buildings around Harrow would knock confidence but, in the grand scheme of things, many of them are vastly underused.

He said: “We wouldn’t be doing this in an ideal world but we have to support the Commissioner [Cressida Dick] as much as possible and work with what we have available.”

He noted how there will inevitably be a drop in the number of police officers out on the streets across the city and said this will likely lead to an increase in crime.

It comes after the Metropolitan Police was told by the Government to find £400 million worth of savings.

Combined with previous cuts of £600 million, the original police budget has been slashed by a third.

Another way in which funds could be recovered is through the merging of the commands of various boroughs.

If this plan were to go ahead, Harrow would merge with Barnet and Brent under the command of current Barnet borough commander Simon Rose.

Mr Tunstall explained that, going forward, the Mayor’s office is keen to hear the opinions of those living in the region.

He said: “We want to know what Londoners think about the impact that these changes will have.

“We don’t mind how you tell us what you think, we just want to know what you think.”