In recent weeks, Munira has been working hard to make Twickenham’s streets safer. In light of the tragic, fatal stabbing of 18 year-old Richmond College student, Hazrat Wali, in Twickenham, Munira has been asking questions of the Government regarding the police officers they promised at the 2019 General Election. Unfortunately, this was not the only knife-related incident in recent times. Other horrific incidents include a machete attack on a cyclist in Richmond Park and a stabbing in Teddington.
As well as working with local police and the council on community safety in our area, Munira has written to the Home Secretary, Priti Patel, asking where the additional promised police officers for our area are. She also wrote to the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, asking him to keep police officers here, in Twickenham, rather than extracting them to support incidents and events elsewhere in London. The letter to the Home Secretary can be seen here:
Further to these letters, Munira also raised the issue of police station closures in Parliament on Wednesday. She called on the Policing Minister to work with the Mayor of London to ensure that local police stations are not closed in areas where they can still help. Whilst it is understandable that many functions of police stations can now be carried out online, such as reporting crime, many local residents feel safer when there is a police station nearby and police are on the streets.
You can watch Munira’s full contribution in Parliament here:
Commenting on local policing, Munira said “Local residents deserve to feel safe. With violent crime on the rise, community policing is absolutely vital. This is why I am doing all I can to ensure we get the promised additional police officers here across Twickenham, Teddington, Whitton, the Hamptons and St Margarets. Closing police stations seems counterproductive if we are to secure more police officers. They need to be based close to the areas they are looking after and accessible to the public.”
“Having fought to keep Teddington Police Station open, I am saddened to hear that the Mayor has decided to sell it off. The Home Office must fund frontline policing properly so that assets do not need to be sold to meet the funding shortfall.”
If you would like to get in touch with Munira, you can do so here.