Biggs slates Boris on PCSOs

Labour’s John Biggs has taken time out from his full-time job as mayor of Tower Hamlets to do some work on his full-time job as a Member of the Greater London Authority. Last week he issued a press release condemning Metropolitan Police plans to cut all Police Community Support Officers in the capital – and condemning London Mayor Boris Johnson for not stepping in to halt the cuts.

The Met’s plans are to be discussed at a meeting of their management Board on 29th September, and Biggs has described them as the “final nail in the coffin for neighbourhood policing.”

Biggs spelled out the possible consequences for Tower Hamlets, pointing out that “The cuts would come on top of previous reductions in PCSO numbers with 94 or 75% lost from Tower Hamlet’s streets since May 2010.” Mayor Lutfur Rahman attempted to do what he could to mitigate these cuts by funding extra Enforcement Officers to deal with minor offences and otherwise assist PCSOs and the police – a move which Labour had opposed at budget time.

To date, Biggs has not indicated what, as an elected GLA Member, he is able to do to influence the cuts decision. However, he is known to have a good working relationship with the police and was the proud recipient of the gift of a “mounted police truncheon” in February 2012.

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