PCSOs across London no longer face the axe, the Met Police Commissioner has revealed.

Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe confirmed that plans to scrap all of the capital’s Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs), had been dropped and that the 649 PCSOs posts attached to neighbourhood teams would be “guaranteed" with no PCSOs facing redundancy.

The confirmation from the Commissioner came after he was quizzed on the issue by Labour’s London Assembly Policing Spokesperson Joanne McCartney AM during a session of the Police and Crime Committee on Thursday (17 December), the day after the Mayor, Boris Johnson , was question by Ms McCartney on the issue.

The Metropolitan Police had been due to consider plans to axe all of the capital’s PCSOs at its Management Board meeting on September 29 but had pushed back the final decision until December after significant opposition.

The cuts could have seen neighbourhood policing teams in Hillingdon reduced to just a single police officer for each ward, despite having six officers only three years ago.

There are currently 1099 neighbourhood PCSOs in the capital, including 24 in Hillingdon .

Dr Onkar Sahota, Labour London Assembly Member for Hillingdon , said: “PCSOs are the eyes and ears of the police, they play an incredibly important intelligence gathering role and scrapping them entirely would have been an absolute disaster.

"PCSOs have faced months of uncertainty as a result of the Government's threatened funding cuts. I am glad our campaign has helped to prevent these cuts and reassure PCSOs that their role is highly valued.

"There is little doubt scrapping PCSOs would have resulted in the end of neighbourhood policing as we know it.”

'Short sighted and disgraceful'

Sir Bernard said other options drawn up to meet the expected cuts will go ahead where they help modernise the force and achieve better value for the taxpayer.

This includes plans to sell off more police buildings and the marketing testing of back office services to determine whether private contractors can provide services cheaper.

But Ruislip Crime Awareness Group Administrator, Alan Palmer, says selling off police buildings is “both short sighted and disgraceful”.

He said: “At a time when the police need more help our politicians should be looking at other ways of raising funds.

"The recent open day in Ruislip highlighted just how much a local police station meant to the community."