The number of police stations across the nation has been slashed by almost half in less than ten years, a shocking Mail on Sunday investigation reveals.

Nearly 400 stations with front counters allowing the public to talk face-to-face with officers have been shut down across England and Wales.

The brutal cutbacks have come as violent crime and terrorism have surged.

In several parts of the country, more than a half a million people are served by as few as four police stations. One area of a million people has just three.

Wealdstone High Street, North-West London: Mohamed Al-Zufairi, 34, was stabbed to death yards from a former police station, pictured, in February. Officers were based there for decades but the front counter closed in 2010 and, despite an MP-led campaign, staff later moved out and in 2014 it was sold for £950,000 for flats

Last night, leading politicians from all parties and retired senior officers slammed the closures as short-sighted and raised fears of an even greater surge in crime.

They warned of ‘communities under siege’ – and of people taking the law into their own hands.

Mohamed Al-Zufairi, 34, pictured, was stabbed to death yards from a former police station in February

Figures for 31 forces in England and Wales, revealed in a Freedom of Information request by the MoS, show the number of front counters open to the public has fallen from 901 in 2010 to just 510.

Louise Haigh, Labour’s policing spokesman, said: ‘If the public feel they can’t get through to the police or they have fewer opportunities to report crime they’ll feel under siege in their own community.

'As we’ve seen in some areas, some will turn to vigilantism.’

Hundreds of cells have also closed, forcing officers to spend hours travelling to custody suites, contributing to a 50 per cent fall in arrests over a decade.

Amid claims that police risk losing control of the streets, our investigation reveals that:

Derbyshire has seen the number of stations open to the public fall by 84 per cent, from 25 to just four;

In a terrifying recent incident in London, a man was stabbed to death outside a police station that had been closed;

Attempts to relocate neighbourhood police in cafes and supermarkets have failed – because people are uncomfortable meeting officers in public;

Yet more closures are forecast as chiefs try to save cash.

The shock figures come after this newspaper revealed that police are arresting half as many people as they used to while emergency calls have hit record high levels.

Crime is also rising again after several years when it appeared to fall, with terror, fraud and violence all on the increase.

Last night David Mellor, Policing Minister under Margaret Thatcher, said: ‘The presence of a police station in a local community makes people safe. But there are a shockingly low number of police stations open, particularly at weekends.’

Former Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron said: ‘The public will be rightly worried. We cannot get into a situation where there is a perception that there are not police on the front line.

‘The chipping away of police budgets is having an impact, risks making the public less safe and the Government needs to wake up.’

Tottenham, North London: A closed and derelict police station, pictured, was set alight in an alleged arson attack earlier this summer. It took eight fire engines and 58 firefighters to control the fierce blaze at the building on the afternoon of June 6. Most of the three-storey listed building was destroyed in the fire, and the cause is now under investigation. It was sold for £3.4 million in 2014 to be turned into eight apartments in a complex also containing 24 new-build homes

Borehamwood, Hertfordshire: Travellers took advantage of police cuts to move into a disused station, pictured. Eyewitnesses said as many as 20 caravans and vans arrived at the building last October. The occupiers placed a ‘legal warning’ sign on the window stating it was now their home and they could not be removed. Police had moved out in 2014 and now operate from council offices, but there is no front counter open to the public

Swansea: A stabbed man managed to stagger to a nearby police station, pictured, only to find it locked. The man was brutally attacked on a Swansea street in June by thug Jason Thomas. The victim suffered a punctured lung and his spleen had to be removed. He somehow walked to Penlan police station but found it empty. It is still used by officers but has no front counter

And former chief constable Sir Hugh Orde said: ‘Stations should be kept open in the most vulnerable communities and where radicalisation takes place.’

Jason Thomas, pictured, attacked a man on Swansea street in June. The victim managed to stagger to a nearby police station only to find it locked

Harry Fletcher, of campaign group Voice4Victims, also criticised the trend, saying: ‘The diminishing presence of police stations in the community will make it harder for officers to gather intelligence about crime, and will further discourage victims from coming forward.’

Detailed figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act for 31 of the 43 forces in England and Wales show that, in 2010, they had 901 front counters open to the public, almost all in old-fashioned town centre police stations with the traditional blue lamp outside and cells inside.

By March this year that figure had fallen by 43 per cent to 510 counters.

Hundreds of police stations have been sold to help offset massive budget cuts imposed by the Home Office, while others have been turned into back offices that the public cannot access.

In many areas there is simply a large yellow telephone on an outside wall that allows victims to report crimes with no face-to-face contact.

Police have also stopped taking reports of fraud in person, setting up a controversial hotline instead, while some forces no longer take lost property.

Chiefs now want members of the public to report incidents online as it is cheaper and quicker than using phone lines or front counters.

The biggest drop in police stations has been in Derbyshire, where the number of buildings accessible to the public has fallen by 84 per cent from 25 to just four, in a county of one million residents covering more than 1,000 square miles.

Hertfordshire, home to 1.1million people in 634 square miles, has only three fully operational police stations, down from ten in 2010.

West Mercia has six, down from 31, while neighbouring Warwickshire has four, down from 14.

Across the whole of Northumbria, there will soon be just one police station that is open to the public 24 hours a day.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan has warned that half the capital’s remaining 73 front counters are at threat, even though the number has been slashed from 148 in recent years.

Three stations for a MILLION people Despite being home to 1.1 million people, Hertfordshire has only three fully operational police stations open to the public – down from ten in 2010, the MoS has discovered. The county has an additional 18 police buildings which are accessible only to officers and civilian staff. To report crimes there, locals must use a free telephone outside to speak to the force’s control room. In Derbyshire the situation is similar – with just four police stations for a population of about 800,000, down from 25 a decade ago. Locals are noticing the difference, especially in Bakewell, which is visited by 2 million tourists a year. In 2015 the town’s police station was earmarked for sale to save money and, despite a 2,000-strong petition, it was closed to the public. Last month, a store yards from the closed station was raided by burglars. Sharon Wakeman, who runs Bakewell Pets, said: ‘It’s a big loss to the town. The station, right in the town centre, was a good deterrent. Shoplifting in the town has doubled since the station closed.’ Retired PC Sandra Wetton, who led the campaign to save the station, said: ‘It is little wonder that more crime is happening because the police can’t respond as quickly.’ The building is still not on the market and many believe plans to sell it have been scuppered as the property was gifted to police by the Duke of Rutland on the condition it be used as a station. Advertisement

Scotland Yard attempted to relocate neighbourhood officers in cafes and supermarkets but the experiment proved a failure with most ‘extremely poorly used’.

Critics suggest that people did not feel comfortable meeting in public to discuss potentially sensitive issues.

Police forces have also been closing down custody suites where suspects can be held in cells.

In 2010, there were 282 but the figure has since fallen by 45 per cent to stand at 155.

Gloucestershire now only has one for the whole county while Cambridgeshire, Northamptonshire and Bedfordshire each have two.

Last week, the remaining custody suite in Bolton was shut down, despite it being a modern facility in a major town that sees a large number of arrests.

Calum Macleod, vice-chairman of the Police Federation of England and Wales, said: ‘While we recognise the need for forces to maximise resources in the current climate of austerity and budget cuts, it’s hard to ignore the knock-on effect that sales of police stations and closures of custody suites have had on policing.

'This has become a particular problem in some areas, especially rural areas, where officers may be forced to drive for long distances to take offenders into custody once a crime has been committed.

'This can take officers off the streets for a considerable period of time.’

A spokesman for the National Police Chiefs Council said: ‘Police are now far more accessible to the public online and by phone.

'Chief Constables and Police and Crime Commissioners will take decisions together about the numbers and locations of police stations and front counters to meet their communities’ needs balanced against force budgets and priorities.

‘All forces ensure they have custody facilities to meet their level of demand.

‘In recent years, several forces have replaced and renewed their custody suites.'

A Home Office spokesman said: 'Police officers across the country do a uniquely challenging and absolutely vital job keeping us safe and secure.

'It’s thanks to their hard work that crimes traditionally measured by the independent survey for England and Wales have fallen by more than a third since 2010. There are now over 470,000 fewer violent crimes than seven years ago.

'The Government has protected overall police spending in real terms since the 2015 Spending Review.

'Decisions on the operational deployment of resources and the size of the police workforce are rightly a matter for Chief Constables, in association with Police and Crime Commissioners, but police forces continue to have the resources they need to do their important work.'

Additional reporting by Ross Slater

Local bases are crucial in battle to keep public safe, says IAN JOHNSTON, a former police commissioner

During my campaign to become a Police and Crime Commissioner, I must have met thousands of ordinary people. But almost without exception, I heard the same concern.

Major crimes, serious though they are, didn’t worry the vast majority of people. What really bothered them on a day-to-day basis was the closure of their local police station.

Why, they asked me, would they now have to travel 15 or 20 miles to find one still open?

Having a police station where they could go and report a crime or ask for advice face-to-face was their No 1 issue.

So, after I was elected as independent PCC for Gwent in 2012, I reversed the Chief Constable’s decision to close 17 front desks across the county.

Seven were reopened completely and the opening hours of two more extended.

The feedback I received as a result was hugely appreciative. The public felt reassured to have police back at the heart of their community.

But the picture across the rest of the country is not so rosy. As this newspaper reveals today, almost half have closed in the last seven years.

Apart from a drop in public confidence, police are missing out on vital intelligence.

In one case on my patch, a man approached me with information after a woman was attacked in a park. He knew who the suspect was, so he went to the local police station but found it was shut. An opportunity missed.

There is no substitute for a proper police station. We tried putting front counters in libraries instead. They didn’t take off. Some people are nervous about being seen to talk to the police. Libraries are open spaces, but you can give confidential information in privacy in a police station.

It’s also of great concern that the number of cells are falling. Officers thinking of arresting somebody, say for a public order offence, know they may have to take them 35 miles to the nearest custody suite.

And as there are fewer custody suites, they might then have to wait two or three hours to book the suspect in. So for half a shift they’re out of action.

PCCs and Chief Constables do their best to balance competing demands in a tough financial environment. But something’s got to give if the choice is between taking cops off the street or shutting stations.

If footfall has gone down, they’ve got to consider the costs of staffing stations.

The money is getting tighter and tighter and I can only see the situation getting worse. But closing stations is making the police further removed from the public they serve.

Ian Johnston QPM was President of the Police Superintendents’ Association of England and Wales, and the first Police and Crime Commissioner for Gwent