Cuts in Police support will hit drive on anti-social behaviour

10.56.53am GMT Mon 4th Dec 2006

Winchester MP Mark Oaten said that the proposed cuts in police community support officers in Winchester and the surrounding area were "disappointing and a real blow to the battle against anti-social behaviour".

Mr Oaten said that the cuts by the Home Office - which will take the planned 593 police community support officers down to some 333 with a one third cut in the budget across Hampshire - were "entirely out of line with the priorities that people in this area want.

"This means a hiring freeze from April even though the numbers are only now being brought into service.

"One of the biggest concerns constituents have is anti-social behaviour such as vandalism and intimidation, which are exactly the sort of offences that Police community support officers are best at tackling.

"Yet the Home Secretary is now cutting back on the money already allocated citing the need to spend more on anti-terrorism and immigration.

"The scale of the threat from both terrorism and immigration has been clear for some time - certainly since the 7th July bombings last year - yet these are last-minute cuts during the financial year smacking more of panic than planning" said Mr Oaten.

"Local people tell me time and again that they want to see more police on the beat, and police community support officers will provide precisely the sort of presence that reassures and deters.

"We now have strong evidence from a study at the London School of Economics that police presence cuts crime: a ten per cent increase in police activity cuts crime by about 3 per cent. Sadly, these cuts mean that we will have more crime than we should in the Winchester area."