PLANS to close Orpington police station and the front counter in Biggin Hill as part of Met Police cost-cutting measures have received a mixed response.

Boris Johnson's draft Police and Crime Plan proposes selling off 65 front counters across the capital to help make savings of £60m. This is part of the Met’s overall target of £514m savings by 2015.

If this proposal is approved Biggin Hill Community Police Office will no longer be open for two hours every week day for people to report crime.

Instead the Met is said to be in discussions with Bromley Council about having a PCSO stationed at the town’s swimming pool and library complex for an hour a week.

And the Met is also talking to Bromley Council about a suitable location for people to visit to report crime if Orpington police station is closed and sold.

Despite its target of cutting the budget by £514m by 2015 the Met says Bromley borough will be getting an extra 54 officers.

Crime victim Colin Bradshaw, of Perry Hall Road, Orpington, has concerns about the proposals.

The 69-year-old said: "Are they going to put proper police on the beat or are they going to be community officers?

"I think Orpington should be kept open because I do not think community policing works and I do not think they do a good job.

"When I had a car stolen from my drive it took them three days to come to that."

But Emma Fullager, 38, of Springholm Close, Biggin Hill, thinks the plan could work in her town.

The mother-of-three said: "I have never had any cause to go in the police office so closing it would not really bother me.

"I think they would be better off setting up in the library or somewhere like that."

Have your say about the proposals at a public meeting on January 28 at The Great Hall, Civic Centre, Stockwell Close, Bromley, from 8pm to 10pm.