CUTS IN POLICE SUPPORT WILL HIT DRIVE ON VANDALISM

1.14.15pm UTC (GMT +0000) Thu 30th Nov 2006

Home Office cuts in funding for PCSOs are a real blow to the battle against anti-social behaviour in Eastleigh

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

Mr Huhne 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 in my post-bag 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.

"My understanding is that the police community support officers have already had an impact locally both in reassuring the public and in arresting four suspected robbers and a shoplifter in the last fortnight alone.

"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 Huhne.

"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 Eastleigh area."