Andrew Dismore

Dear Editor,

Obviously I am pleased to see that Mrs Villers and the other Barnet MPs have apparently caught  up with the threat of  Barnet ‘s Police Borough Commander position being merged with Harrow and are now backing  the campaign which I and Navin Shah (London Assembly Member for Harrow and Brent ) started against  this, but I would be more impressed if they were also speaking out like we have, over the cuts to our local police service.

Answers to questions I put to the London  Mayor show that as of May 2010, when the Conservative led Coalition  Government came to power, in Barnet there were  607 warranted officers, 110 sergeants and 171 PCSOs. As of 31^st July 2012, the numbers had dropped to 530 warranted officers, 88 sergeants and just 97 PCSOs. That is 173 fewer pairs of eyes and ears on the beat in Barnet.

Burnt Oak SNT now only has a mere 4 officers in total, and Coppetts and Oakleigh have just 5 instead of the 9 they each had. Mill Hill had 10- and is now down to just 5.

So much for the oft repeated and clearly broken promise of the Conservative MP for Hendon during the 2010 General Election, that he would put more police on the beat! He has failed, and has “delivered” the exact opposite.

Now we also see that Mayor Johnson is apparently already backing off from his commitment to an extra 1000 officers ( in just part replacement for those that have been cut,) made only 6 months ago at the mayoral elections last May.

We are also likely to lose police stations too, like Whetstone, as the only promise now from Mayor Johnson is to have just one 24/7 police station per borough.

The Conservatives may talk about policing; but their actions (and inaction) speak louder than their crocodile tears for the police service.

Yours sincerely

Andrew Dismore

London Assembly member for Barnet and Camden