BEXLEY has lost 71 police officers and 58 PCSOs since May 2010, according to new figures.

The Metropolitan Police has lost over 3000 officers since then and there are now 30,085 PCs in London.

Bexley has lost 18 per cent of the borough's PCs and 53 per cent of PCSOs.

Next week the Boris Johnson will decide whether he will adopt proposed amendments to his budget for 2014/15.

The amendment would immediately see 1,185 PCSOs and an extra 250 Safer Transport Team Police Officers recruited using the existing budget to help plug the gap caused by cuts to the policing budget by the Mayor and central government.

Len Duvall, Labour London Assembly Member, said:"On Boris Johnson’s watch we’ve seen the erosion of policing in London and in our borough, when he stood for re-election he promised to maintain numbers at 32,000 but he has failed to do this.

"According to his own figures he has cut police officer numbers by over 3,000 and halved PCSOs, which made up the bulk of our local safer neighbourhood teams.

"In Bexley we’ve lost 71 police officers and 58 PCSOs.

"The Met Police is now the third least visible on the streets compared to other areas of the country.

"We need a properly resourced police service to tackle crime and provide a much better service to victims.

"I hope next week he will adopt my budget amendment and start to properly resource our local police teams.

"The government have cut the policing budget by 20%, the Mayor needs to stand up for Londoners and get a better deal for our city from his colleagues in government."

James Cleverly, Conservative Assembly Member for Bexley and Bromley, added: "There will always be an ebb and flow to police numbers, currently the Met is hiring 5k new constables.

"I will always prefer police numbers to stay high, but I understand it takes time to train the world’s best officers, and would prefer the Met to maintain its high standards rather than rushing new recruits into post just to meet some arbitrary figure. "Numbers are important but policing is also about better tactics and allocation, which have led to significant reductions in crime in London."