Tories cut Wandsworth Police by 6%

When the reports started to emerge last year about the sheer scale of the Conservatives' cuts to policing in London, as reported by the Evening Standard, the numbers were so vast that it was hard to appreciate what they mean for areas like ours.

But at this week's Crime and Disorder Partnership meeting, Borough Police Commander Stewart Low revealed for the first time what those cuts mean for Putney: a 6% cut in the Wandsworth police force budget this coming year.

Commendably, our police leadership is guaranteeing no cuts in our safer neighbourhood police teams: something that may be achievable for one year, but as Conservative cuts keep being made year-in, year-out (as they promise), this will become untenable.

Let's just put in context what a 6% cut represents. 6% is the equivalent of 37 police officers. It's not a small cut: it's a deep cut that attacks the effectiveness of our local police, who have delivered big falls in crime throughout Putney.

This is how the Conservatives reward success. It's exactly what they did in the 1990s when they were last in charge of police funding. If you vote the Conservatives into power later this year, they'll keep doing it.