Working for Constituents - Fighting Crime
Leading the fight against police cuts
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With Kingston's Police braced for large funding cuts this year, I led the Commons' opposition to the cuts in a special debate & set up a local crime prevention partnership: the Safer Stations Initiative.
The delegation I led to New Scotland Yard helped stave off cuts to Kingston's police. This year however, I have to report the news is not so good. In fact, despite vigorous campaigning, this year Kingston will lose another twenty-two officers. The Home Secretary, Jack Straw, has slashed the Metropolitan Police budget despite huge opposition, most notably in a special debate I called in Parliament.
I am appalled by Government police cuts - one solitary beat officer for example is now responsible for patrolling Chessington, Hook and Malden Rushett. While levels of crime have fallen, they are still far too high, with crimes like vandalism and graffiti all too obvious. It is madness to argue that this scale of cuts will not affect the fight against crime. These cuts make community policing difficult in areas such as Chessington and Worcester Park. Police cuts have already affected local performance, as shown by slower response times. Last year, 90% of calls were answered in under 12 minutes. This year the figure is only 85%.
Faced with these huge cuts, we need to do more than just complain. That's why I set up the Safer Stations Initiative to try to reduce crime and the fear of crime at and around the Borough's ten train stations. I am grateful to the British Transport Police, the Metropolitan Police, South West Trains, Kingston Council and Chessington World of Adventures for their help and work so far.
I will continue to fight police cuts, and argue for more resources for our area, just as I did in my Commons' debate this April. You can read the full text of my speech on the website, but here are a few extracts to illustrate my argument to Ministers:
"Part of the reason for the negative trend in the Met were the changes in the early 1990s to the formula dividing the national police budget between different police forces...Chief constables from outside London convinced Home Secretaries that London was being featherbedded. As a result, the Met have seen their share of the national police budget shrink from 29 per cent. before the changes in the formula to some 22 per cent. today.
"We must now seriously question whether that squeeze on the Met can be sustained for much longer. I understand that the Government are trying to bypass the worst effect of the formula for London by increasing specific grants to compensate for the distinct national and capital city functions that the Met undertake, in protecting royalty and diplomats and policing major events. However, formulae that have served their useful life should be changed, and I urge the Minister to revisit the formula and tackle the anti-London bias.
"In Kingston, we have felt the reality of that. Constituents tell me that when there are problems in Chessington, say from a gang of youths on Hook parade, or problems in Worcester Park around the station with vandals and graffiti, the police response time has dropped.
"We must recognise that places such as Kingston are not over-staffed, whatever the formula says. I urge Ministers to revisit the London police resourcing formula to make sure that success in reducing crime in areas such as Kingston is not punished." Hansard 23.4.99
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