I had to pause for a moment recently and seriously wonder about the health of one Haringey’s former police chief superintendents after I received an email about locating Highgate’s Safer Neighbourhood team actually in Highgate.

A few years ago now, I campaigned with residents against the closure of the Highgate police station.Then as now, I believe that our community is better served by a police force that is as close as possible to the area it is protecting.Sadly as many residents will know, Highgate police station was lost in that round of estate reorganisation or whatever the excuse was used for closing the station.

As I have previously reported, we are fortunate that our latest Borough Commander has taken a very positive view on community policing and bringing the Safer Neighbourhood teams back to the local areas they serve.Nevertheless, for fear that all this positive talk maybe lost under a pile of good intentions I had taken it upon myself to actually go out with the local Safer Neighbourhood team.A hands-on approach from an MP is good reminder for the decision makers that there are a lot of people who care about this change and will be affected.

In preparation for my outing I asked local people on my email mailing list to suggest any premises they thought might be suitable in Highgate.I should have predicted what the response would be.There were lots of different responses, but one premises kept on popping up in people’s suggestions: the old Highgate Police station.

So imagine my surprise when I received an email from the police officer who has kindly agreed to go round Highgate with me dropping a little bombshell.

Guess where he’s suggesting we start our hunt?”One of the ideal locations for us to be based at would actually appear to be Highgate Police Station.”Proof that if you stand in the same position for long enough, it all comes round again.

Years ago in one of my meetings with the then Borough Commander, Steven James, where I resorted to pleading with him not to close Highgate police station, he told me in no uncertain terms that Highgate police station would re-open over his dead body.I wonder if I should drop him a line just to check if he’s OK?