Mayor of London provides fresh action in Bexleyheath Broadway to build on crime reductions, Bexley Tories don’t want to listen
Thanks to Sadiq Khan, Mayor of London, town centres across London will see an enhanced police presence this summer, building on reductions in thefts, burglary, knife crime and robbery achieved so far this year, and more shoplifting cases solved.
Intensified multi-agency action will tackle anti-social behaviour, and theft is part of ongoing work by the Met and Mayor of London to put visible neighbourhood policing at the heart of fighting crime and rebuilding community confidence.
London’s Safer Neighbourhood teams now have an additional 500 Met officers and staff ranging from Superintendent to PCSOs, working closer than ever with communities to understand and deal with local priorities.
‘Safer Streets Summer’ in London’s town centres, including Bexleyheath Broadway have been identified and will see an enhanced police and local authority presence this summer as part of partnership work to build on reductions in theft, burglary, robbery, ASB and retail crime achieved in the capital so far this year.
Bexley Labour welcome these new initiatives from the Mayor of London in fighting crime and supporting more police and we welcome the record investment for 25/26 of £1.159bn in the Metropolitan Police, plus the recent announcement in the spending review by the Labour government to increase spending power by 2.3% across policing until 2028/29. Yet at last nights council meeting, Bexley Tories made it impossible for us to debate these important improvements for Bexley residents by deliberately not wanting legitimate debate.
From Councillor Stefano Borella, Leader of Bexley Labour Group
‘At the last council meeting, Bexley Labour Group were ready to debate a motion from Bexley Conservative group and defend the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan on his good record on police numbers and reducing crime in London since 2016, yet Bexley Conservatives deliberately decided not to show us before the meeting the changes they wanted for their original motion. This is why Bexley Labour group walked out of the debate because this administration doesn’t believe in fair debate, is tired, has run out of ideas and just want to play pathetic political games. Next year’s local elections is an opportunity to vote out Bexley Tories after 20 years of managed decline in Bexley’
Thanks to the hard work of the police, London’s Violence Reduction Unit, Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC), local authorities and partners, the first six weeks of this financial year have seen promising reductions in a number of crime types compared to the same period last year.
Knife crime – down by 18.1 per cent
Residential burglary – down by 17.7 per cent
Theft from the person – down by 15.6 per cent
Personal robbery – down by 12.8 per cent.
Shoplifting – the Met have solved 163 per cent more cases this year than in the same period as last year.
These reductions are in addition to the latest Office for National Statistics Crime stats which show that overall, the violent crime with injury rate is lower in London than in the rest of England and Wales1. Gun crime with lethal barrel discharges, knife crime with injury for those aged under 25 and homicides in the capital have all fallen since 2016.2
Crimes which have fallen since May 2016:
Knife crime with injury for those aged under 25 (down 21%), 365 fewer offences in 12 months to April 2024 compared to the 12 months to May 2016*.
Violence with Injury (down 13%)**
Homicide (down 23%), 27 fewer offences**
Burglary (down 26%)**
Gun Crime Lethal Barrel Discharge (down 43%)**
*Due to a change in recording practice at the MPS, statistics for Knife Crime with Injury victim under 25 for FY year 2024/2025 cannot be compared to previous periods.
Performance against this measure will therefore be tracked separately beyond this period and presented in due course.
** 12-month period to May 2016 as compared to 12-month period to May 2025
Safer Streets Summer Initiative
A national Safer Streets Summer Initiative is running from 30 June until the end of September 2025, focusing on reducing town centre criminality, shop theft, street crime and anti-social behaviour across the UK.
The Safer Streets Summer Initiative is being led by Police and Crime Commissioners
(PCCs), supported by the Home Office in partnership with Chief Constables and other essential local partners such as councils, schools, health services, business, transport and community organisations.
Forces will be harnessing £66m in hotspot policing funding this financial year, and building on existing powers and initiatives, to ensure local needs and concerns are addressed.
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Below are motion from recent Council meeting, The Labour |Group walked out of this agenda item
Original motion:
That this Council notes that the numbers of Metropolitan Police officers stands at over 34,000, which is the highest on record, including more than 2,500 new recruits since September 2019 as part of the Government’s commitment to increase police officer numbers by 20,000 across the country by 2023; welcome the investment in policing from the Government; welcomes those new recruits to the police, including recruits from Bexley and special constables; is disappointed that the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has failed to provide Bexley with its fair share of these additional police officers and policing resource; and calls on the Mayor of London to put more police on our streets and in our communities to support our efforts to reduce crime and anti-social behaviour, to make Bexley even safer, and protect people from crime and bring offenders to face justice.
Altered motion (This altered motion was never shown to the Labour Group before the meeting).
That this Council notes that the numbers of Metropolitan Police officers stands at around 33,000, which is the lowest per capita since 2019 despite the previous Government’s national Police Uplift Programme to increase police officer numbers by 20,000 across the country by 2023; notes and is disappointed that the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan failed to recruit the full numbers of new police officers available under that Programme, making the Metropolitan Police the only police force in the country not to meet this target and leaving it with 1,089 fewer police officers than it should have had and were funded; is further disappointed that the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has failed to provide Bexley with its fair share of police officers and policing resources; and calls on the Mayor of London to put the police he promised on our streets and in our communities to support our efforts to reduce crime and anti-social behaviour to make Bexley even safer, and protect people from crime, and bring offenders to face justice.
Proposed Labour amendment for the original motion.
That this Council notes that the numbers of Metropolitan Police officers stands at over 34,000, which is the highest on record, including more than 2,500 new recruits since September 2019 as part of the previous Government’s commitment to increase police officer numbers by 20,000 across the country by 2023; welcome the investment in policing from the previous Government; welcomes those new recruits to the police, including recruits from Bexley and special constables; and notes the Mayor of London has put more police on our streets and in our communities to support our efforts to reduce crime and anti-social behaviour, to make Bexley even safer, and protect people from crime and bring offenders to face justice.
That this council strongly supports the neighbourhood ward policing teams being visible and engaged in our communities.
This council also notes that Boris Johnson, the previous Mayor of London closed Sidcup and Belvedere police stations, cut 3,396 or 72 percent of Police Community Support Officer roles (PCSOs) in London and supported the Conservative government cuts to police numbers from 2010 to 2019. We welcome the announcement in March 2024 by the Mayor of London to recruit 1,300 more neighbourhood policing officers and the record investment for 25/26 of £1.159bn in the Metropolitan Police, plus the recent announcement in the spending review to increase spending power by 2.3% across policing until 2028/29.