London Assembly Member for Bexley and Bromley Thomas Turrell has secured a fairer arrangement for the policing of events at Crystal Palace Park, meaning officers from across five South-East London boroughs now share responsibility for policing major events at the iconic park.
In 2025, Bromley’s neighbourhood police officers were required to police back-to-back festivals and events at Crystal Palace Park using officers from Bromley alone.
This was despite Crystal Palace Park sitting on the border of five London boroughs: Bromley, Croydon, Lambeth, Lewisham and Southwark.
As a result, for much of the summer, Bromley residents faced reduced access to their neighbourhood police officers as officers were repeatedly deployed to events at the park.
Thomas described the arrangement as unfair and wrote to the Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime alongside Peter Fortune MP, Gareth Bacon MP and Councillor Angela Page, demanding a fairer approach.
They called for police officers from all five boroughs surrounding Crystal Palace Park to be used to police events, rather than placing the responsibility solely on Bromley’s police officers.
The Deputy Mayor agreed to the new arrangement, taking effect
Thomas Turrell said:
“The original arrangement wasn’t just unfair on residents across Bromley, losing their already stretched neighbourhood officers, but unfair on the officers who had to work back-to-back weekends, losing precious time with family, friends and loved ones.
“I am delighted to have secured this new, fairer arrangement that splits the demand on officers across five boroughs, not just Bromley.
“We have some incredible neighbourhood officers in Bromley working tirelessly to keep our borough safe. They deserve our support.”
