Community Meeting held in Colliers Wood - Update 13/08/2011 (5pm)

"I have just returned from a well attended Community meeting in Colliers Wood, the area in our borough most affected by Monday’s disorder. I was extremely pleased to receive so much support from the local community after explaining how the events unfolded locally."

"There was also praise for the local partnership that came together in a united response to the incidents as well as thanks for the local volunteers that came out to help."

"Joining local residents and families, many of our community leaders were also there, including the local MP Siobhain McDonagh, the leader of the council Stephen Alambritis , the Chief Executive Ged Curran and Director for Environment from Merton, Merton's London Fire Brigade Borough Commander Jane Philpott, ward councillors, the Chamber of Commerce, faith leaders and many more."

"A healthy exchange of views took place with an emphasis on how to get back to normal, and then how to build local community cohesion and public spiritedness. There were many suggestions and ideas for learning and improving services, willingness for the business community to have closer links with the police and local authority and this includes developing quicker lines of communications."

"CommunitySafe (www.communitysafe.gov.uk - our free text messaging alert/advise/inform service) already has in excess of 24,000 email contacts amongst the residential community, and could be extended to include business and retailers. This will be taken forward."

"The Mitcham Status Fair has also returned to normal by opening their doors for the full planned hours."

"Police are still working hard to arrest offenders and much of this work involves search warrants and detective support from New Scotland Yard. Our local authority CCTV is being scrutinised and we will be publicising many more images of suspects in the coming days, weeks and even months. This enquiry will go on until we have we exhausted every possible lead."

"I am now making plans for the police to return to near normal levels of policing. It is not a realistic option for my staff to continue working 12 hour shifts without any days off for the remainder of the summer, but I will be making sure we have sufficient resilience that we can quickly up our numbers at short notice if needed."

"The borough remains calm and confidence is slowly gaining momentum - if you didn't know about Monday's disorder then you would think everything was quite normal except may be the extra police on visible patrols."

"Lastly, can I just ask again for your continued support in terms of providing information and intelligence. This is so important to keep the high levels of police enforcement activity at its current levels."

"Any information please pass to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 or Merton Police on 101 anytime of the day or night."

"In any emergency requiring immediate police attendance, always dial 999."

Pete Dobson Superintendent Operations merton@met.police.uk Based on information supplied by PC Mann.