By Councillor Jeff Hanna, Merton Council (Labour, Pollards Hill ward)

I note the Metropolitan Police spokesman’s reassurance that Ken Livingstone’s Safer Neighbourhood’s Team (SNT) model, one sergeant, two constables and three police community support officers (PCSOs), known as 1-2-3, is unchanged.

This contrasts with conversations I have had with Borough Commander Dick Wolfenden.

Commander Wolfenden has explained to me the creation of Volt teams, each led by a sergeant, and aimed at tackling specific community problems requiring more input than the SNT can provide.

To manage these, a sergeant is taken from a SNT, and two SNTs are managed by one sergeant, as has happened in Longthornton and Pollards Hill.

Commander Wolfenden is right to respond creatively to specific needs. He has to work within the resources available to him.

Nevertheless the 1-2-3 SNT model has been compromised, which is regrettable.

Crime statistics for the Borough continue to show that all wards need the full complement of a 1-2-3 SNT.

Elsewhere, police chiefs are warning that government cuts of 20 per cent to police budgets will affect front line policing.

Yet Boris Johnson boasts that he will maintain levels of front line police in London. We will see.

I predict that Merton’s 20 SNTs will be reconfigured to provide the proposed nine area teams, with a real reduction in front line officers, and that crime will slowly rise.

If so, Commander Wolfenden will not be to blame, but Boris’s boasts will be proven to be just so much hot air.

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