Borough Commander Chief Superintendent Dave Musker has defended the potential closing of a police station by stating good policing is "not about bricks and mortar".

Speaking at the Croydon Community Police Consultative Group on March 21, Chief Supt Musker said no decision had been made about South Norwood station, but a review of all police stations across London is underway.

A new custody suite on Windmill Road, designed to house up to 41 prisoners and include Croydon CID, is set to open on April 23.

Chief Supt Musker said: "We are all about trying to take things forward.

"This includes looking at response times, investigations, proactivity and community engagement.

"With community engagement we haven’t got things right and we need to get better at it but it is not all about bricks and mortar."

Latest figures show response times to emergencies across the borough have steadily got worse during the past two years, with an average response time of nearly ten months in both January and February.

Chief Supt Masker added the upkeep of South Norwood Station, even before paying for police offices, was more than £500,000.

Coun Stuart Collins, ward representative for Broad Green and Labour member for community safety, said: "You are not going to be able to have community engagement when you are closing the police station in South Norwood.

"If you had a station in Broad Green you can have police officers step out and be in the area immediately, get to know the kids there and become part of the community.

"You can’t get that when different officers are being sent out from a centralised station."

South Norwood Station became the centre of the borough’s policing operations when an explosion at Croydon Police station closed it on March 20.

A spokesman for Croydon Police said: "The police estate contains over 800 buildings many of which, including some of our police stations, provide poor working conditions for staff, are inefficient for modern day policing and are being replaced by more modern, efficient and geographically responsive facilities.

"The MPS is reviewing the whole of the property estate to ensure we are making best use of it and identifying efficiency savings that can be reinvested into operational policing.

"As part of this we are looking at police estate requirements in Croydon.

"Our aim is to improve the policing across the borough for the long term and looking at our property requirements is a key part of this."