More Police Resources - Not Less

9.00.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Thu 2nd Mar 2006

Lib Dem councillors are calling for more police to cover an expanding population in our borough.

Local Lib Dem councillors have been seeking reassurances that the roll out of Safer Neighbourhood Teams (SNTs) across London will not result in any loss of resources in Tower Hamlets.

The roll-out of Safer Neighbourhood Teams (SNTs) across London has raised concerns that the number of officers and PCSOs per team will be reduced in order to staff the extra new teams.

Lib Dem Councillor Ray Gipson has sought reassurances that there are no plans to withdraw constables or PCSOs from their current teams and placed in teams either inside or outside of our borough on a temporary or permanent basis.

Cllr Ray Gipson said, "Due to regeneration initiatives in Bow East, Fish Island has an increasing number of residential properties and the number of people living there has escalated over the last 2 years. In addition, there are two or three more large developments coming on stream. This has had a huge impact on the resources required. In this context we need more police officers to cover the area and I'm really worried by rumours that we may experience a reduction. Even if this were temporary it would be disastrous for Bow."

At last night's Full Council meeting the Liberal Democrats proposed an amendment to the motion on policing on the Isle of Dogs. They called for a review of the allocation of police resources throughout the borough in the context of growth in population in many areas.