In the last couple of months further worrying news has emerged of unprecedented cuts to London’s Metropolitan Police Service. London’s Mayor has already imposed fierce cuts to the London Fire Brigade resulting in the closure of 10 Fire Stations and in the current round of budget cuts London’s emergency service are facing cuts that would risk safety of London.
In late September the Metropolitan Police Management Board met to consider removing in excess of 1000 safer neighbourhood Police Community Officers (PCSOs) serving London. There was an absolute uproar amongst communities across London and even the Mayor of London when quizzed at Mayor’s Question Time knew nothing about these proposals. Decision on the fate of all London’s PCSOs was deferred after fierce opposition until December.The delay in decision from the Met comes only a week after the Commissioner warned that the scale of police funding cuts were “worrying” for the capital saying that “we’ve got options on how to make savings but with that scale of savings none of them are attractive.”
I welcome that the Met is taking the time to listen to the vast public opposition to the proposed cuts to all PCSOs in London. As the Commissioner has warned, there is no doubt the spending cuts being made by Government could have a terrible impact on London’s police force.
Despite this stay of execution for PCSOs it’s clear the future of local policing in the capital remains at grave risk. We cannot be complacent and I will be spending the next two months making the case for neighbourhood policing in the capital. There is no doubt that Government cuts are putting great strain on the police force, it’s time the Home Secretary understood that the decimation of neighbourhood policing is not a price the London public are willing to pay. I’m concerned that the commitment and good work by local police will be undermined by the cuts to PCSOs leaving all local areas without neighbourhood police. The current stay of execution is not good enough.
I note that the Met Police Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe has served a further bleak and honest warning that £1bn cuts in the next four years could render London unsafe and it could even undermine met police's ability to prevent terrorist outrage. In the light of potential cuts of 5,000 to 8,000 police officers arising from crippling cuts the Met's Commissioner has said 'I'm genuinely worried about the safety of London'.
This is not scare mongering. The plain truth is that there is serious threat of London being rendered unsafe in terms of day to day policing and also putting at risk ability of police to address issues related to terrorism. As it is area like Brent and Harrow have concerns of rising crime. The latest threat of major cuts does not bode well for the safety and wellbeing of our communities. We should do everything to resist these crippling cuts.
