Ten out of 20 wards in Newham will share sargeants

Half the wards in the borough will share a sargeant as part of a London-wide policing review of Safer Neighbourhood Teams.

Senior officers at Newham police have said the changes will not lead to any differences in front line policing or reductions in the numbers of PCs and PCSOs seen on the street.

The changes will take effect in September 2011 when ten wards will be supervised by five sergeants so that there will be one officer of that rank looking after two wards. The borough currently has 20 sergeants for 20 SNT wards.

The wards that will, in effect, share a sergeant are: Green Street East and Green Street West, Custom House and Royal Docks, East Ham Central and Wall End, East Ham North and Manor Park, and Canning Town North and Canning Town South. The other remaining ten wards will continue to be supervised by one sergeant each.

Chief Inspector for Safer Neighbourhood Teams in Newham Guy Wade said: “There will be no merging of wards and front line policing will remain the same.

“The SNT review(by the Metropolitan Police Authority) decided that in each borough across London there will be cuts of four to six sergeant. It just so happens that for Newham it is five.”

In deciding which wards could share a sergeant, he said they took into consideration levels of crime and anti-social behaviour and made a professional judgement. They also had feedback from the officers who would be affected.

He said: “The Metropolitan Police is firmly behind the Safer Neighbourhood model of policing. Its a cornerstone of community policing.”