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Policing in London

Indeed. I fear that one or more Conservative councils may feature in that. At heart, I have sympathy for the view expressed by my hon. Friend the Member for Ilford, South (Mike Gapes). To continue in the positive vein, I am pleased to say that both the local authorities in my area—Hammersmith and Fulham council and Ealing—have continued the trend with different schemes, although some are more credible and well thought out than others. However, the intention, at least, is to fund additional police resources. In the London borough of Ealing, there is joint funding between the council and the police for additional PCSOs. It is a £2 million scheme that has been split between the two of them. It is early days, but it seems to be a good idea of which there is joint ownership. In addition, and thanks to the Mayor of London, an 18-person British Transport police team is also operating in Ealing. These are substantial resources on top of the safer neighbourhood team. I pay tribute to the partnership that is going on. Hammersmith and Fulham council decided that it wanted to put an extra £2 million per year for the next two years into a scheme to which the hon. Member for Arundel and South Downs (Nick Herbert) alluded. I think that he underestimated the increase in numbers on the safer neighbourhood teams, because there will be an increase in two wards only from six to 35 officers in order to provide 24-hour safer neighbourhood policing. When the hon. Gentleman made his lengthy address, he asked me a question. I think that 24/7 policing is a good idea. If neighbourhood policing has an Achilles heel or involves unfinished business, it is due to the fact that if there are six officers per ward, it is difficult to provide more than partial coverage even during core hours let alone over 24 hours. I do not think that it is a particularly innovative idea—the Labour group in Hammersmith and Fulham have had it, and I am sure that it is in the Mayor’s mind—but, having established the teams throughout London, the next step is to expand their hours. Let us be fair—the scheme has been introduced in record time so far. The Hammersmith and Fulham scheme should certainly succeed. If one is putting 35 neighbourhood officers, including an inspector, five sergeants and numerous PCSOs into one ward, it would be incredible if there was not a substantial effect. The principle is good, but the problem is that the practice is quite insane. The first problem is that one of the wards that has been chosen is in quite a prosperous area in Fulham and does not have the highest level of crime. I have no problem with the choice of the other ward. Shepherd’s Bush Green is one of the three wards with the highest level of crime, and it is in my constituency. The scheme is said to be for two years, but there is no business plan or exit strategy for it, but the main point is that the Conservative council—what a surprise this is—did not want to put up any money at all. The scheme in Shepherd’s Bush Green relied on a section 106 agreement for a major developer, Westfield, to develop the Shepherd’s Bush shopping centre. Somebody who knows rather more about this matter than I do is challenging, through the district auditor, whether that is a proper use of section 106 money. We have a peculiar set-up whereby the money will be given as part of the planning consent for what is going to be one of the largest shopping centres in Europe, but, in the main part, the money will be spent before the shopping centre opens. Members can imagine what the developer thinks about that. The developer was not keen on the scheme because, in its opinion, the police would be provided and then, when the influx of several tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of people into the area began with the full opening of the centre, the police would be taken away again. The developer suspected that it would be lumbered with the ongoing cost year-on-year, which is £1 million—not an insignificant sum. The response from the Conservative council was, ““Well, don’t worry. We’re not going to pay it and you’re not going to pay it. The police will have to pay it in the end.”” But, of course, the police are not actually contributing any money to the scheme. Although the police have welcomed the scheme, the fact that it is not a partnership scheme on an equal basis—unlike the Ealing scheme—raises some doubts about their commitment to it. I add in passing that in the other ward where the scheme has been introduced, there was an attempt to snaffle money from the new deal for communities scheme in a neighbouring ward. That would have meant taking money from a deprived area and spending it in a wealthier area. There was an attempt to pack the board of the NDC scheme with Tory councillors. It was only the protests from community representatives that meant that it was not possible to get away with that.