Greenwich Park police to go as the Met plan huge cuts
London’s Metropolitan Police have revealed they still face the prospect of wide-ranging cuts to funding which would see the loss of 1,700 officers and the dedicated Royal Parks Department.
Cuts of £260 million are required according to Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley. Earlier projections saw bigger cuts and a reduction of 2,300 officers.
Along with the removal of dedicated Royal Park police and overall police numbers dropping substantially there could also be a 25 per cent reduction in mounted police, an 11 per cent cut in forensics, ten per cent for historic crime investigations and seven per cent for police dogs.
Police counters could be further reduced despite many police stations recently closing and areas losing counters. In Greenwich borough, for example, police stations were closed in Greenwich, Woolwich, Westcombe Park and Thamesmead.
Most of the public land was sold off for relatively little. For example Westcombe Park only saw £770k in income.
Austerity continues
A change in government has seen little change in the downward trajectory of funding over the past 15 years and continuation of austerity.
As for policing in particular it often seems an area where the political class is utterly detached from the public at large.
You have to be in a cave not to notice an increase in things like brazen shoplifting and reports and stats back that up – unless perhaps you only ever get Ocado deliveries as one suspects certain MPs do.
Though its not just shoplifting but attacking security guards and staff which I’ve seen first hand a couple of times recently. Yes, yes, anecdotal but not something that was prevalent for me until recently.
Union USDAW’s recent survey of 5,500 staff showed 18% of shop workers suffered a violent attack last year, compared to 8% in 2022.
Now I’ve little time for those who claim things were all fine and dandy in the recent past which is an obvious nonsense (crime was common growing up in Abbey Wood and Woolwich in the ’90s and 2000s both serious and relatively minor and I’ve plenty of stories of things I saw first hand) but still, it’s now clear some issues have and are growing quickly.
The issue of brazen theft is ever more commonly seen by both shoppers and experienced by staff – and clear in terms of stats – while policing is cut.
Reducing officers by 1,700 across London is hardly going to alleviate those trends – and the public will in turn become ever more disillusioned.
GLA tax and Greenwich council tax has basically doubled over the past 6 years. What on earth are they playing at and what the hell are we getting for absurd tax hikes?
Most police funding comes from the Home Office and they’re both cutting their share and forcing more onto local government
Inflation effects everything
I’ve never seen any shoplifting happening.
The parks police will be the only ones stopping the park from being used as a camping site. If you’ve been to Bois de Boulogne on the outskirts of Paris you’ll see what happens when the police stop patrolling.
A very good question Matt. That is what we would all like to know. Do not matter how much tax we pay they will come up with reasons to cut vital front line services.
cutting police at the current moment is absolutely unbelievable.
Just another example of how utterly useless and delusional our governments (past and present) are. Crime is off the chart in London with an absolute epidemic of muggings and yet they are cutting police. The UK is in terminal decline because we are run by morons who cant/wont do anything to help the tax payer. It is no wonder so many skilled people are leaving.