Maureen West, chairman of Barnet’s Neighbourhood Watch scheme, is absolutely correct when she said: “The trouble is we don’t have the police numbers, as the budget has been cut. …You cannot have confidence in police that aren’t there.”

Under the Conservatives, despite the MP for Hendon’s very specific, often repeated, yet clearly broken promise from the last election to increase police numbers, the police have faced draconian cuts – the Metropolitan Police has been docked £600million a year so far, which translates locally in Barnet into a loss of no fewer than 65 police officers compared to 2010. We have seen an end to the popular ward safer neighbourhood teams and the closure of most of our police stations, too.

The consequences of the cuts are there for all to see: Barnet police cannot meet their own emergency call attendance times targets. There has been an increase in violent and car crime, and far too low detection rates for key offences such as burglary, with just three per cent of burglaries resulting in prosecutions. Many people don’t even bother to report crimes anymore.

If the Conservatives are re-elected in May, things will get even worse. The Conservative Chancellor George Osborne’s autumn statement promised even more drastic police cuts of another £800m a year in London, which will mean that the Met Police budget will be cut to just two thirds of what it was in 2010.

That can only result in even fewer police officers and further decline in confidence in the police, who are hard working, committed and fully deserving of our support as they are, like most of our public services they just cannot cope with the demands placed on them as a result of the cuts already and the threat of more to come.

Andrew Dismore

Labour London Assembly Member for Barnet and Camden