NEIGHBOURHOOD policing will not suffer during the Olympics, the Metropolitan Police’s top cop assured residents.

Commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe was at Christ the King St Mary’s Sixth Form College in Sidcup on Wednesday for a question and answer session with residents on Bexley and Bromley.

He told the meeting of around 100 residents: “I am confident we will continue to provide a good service for what is a relatively short period.”

He said: “The Community Support Officers will not be moved for the Olympics. They will still be around.”

While other officers will be seconded to cover the Olympics, the boroughs will be asked to rearrange shift patterns, he said, so officers work longer and different hours.

Of 12,000 officers on duty for the Olympics, only 4,000 will be Met officers he said. The remainder will come from forces around the country.

Since taking up the reins six months ago Mr Hogan-Howe’s monthly visits have taken him to 30 of the city’s 32 boroughs.

He said it was a “challenge” to keep in touch with 50,000 staff, so significantly harder to do so with 7.5million Londoners but, he said: “It seems to me we need to be held to account.”

In a presentation, he showed crime was down as a whole across both Bexley and Bromley last year.

So too were detections, with 11 per cent fewer (580) crimes solved in Bromley and 18 per cent fewer (642) in Bexley.

He said the figures were “similar across the met” but conceded it was a figure he was “not happy” with.

Amid criticism of Safer Neighbourhood Teams across the borough, Mr Hogan-Howe promised more officers on the streets.

He said: “After the Olympics we are going to get 2,000 more police officers onto the streets who were in the back office. It is a significant change.

“For me, fundamentally, the way to build trust is to be reasonable people and if we are asked to do something, to do it properly.”

Sidcup police station

A QUESTION on whether there is a future for Sidcup police station momentarily stumped Mr Hogan-Howe.

Asked if there was a “glimmer of hope” for a reopening of the building which was shut in March, despite a 1,200-strong petition, Mr Hogan-Howe confessed he did not know the building but suggested it could be saved if the front counter was staffed by volunteers.

But he was left red-faced by a commenter from the back of the room who told him the money-saving plan had been put into place more than a decade earlier.

“Why was it closed then?” the baffled commissioner asked.

Chairman of the meeting, Bromley and Bexley Assembly Member James Cleverly, stepped in.

Mr Cleverly said it was “a little bit unfair” on the commissioner because the decision was made before his appointment.

Mr Cleverly added that it was closed because “very real capital investment” was needed to bring the building “up to standard”.