Hammersmith's budget shows £2.2m police cuts but Cllr Greg Smith says no. So what's the figure?

We had a Twitter exchange yesterday with Tory Hammersmith & Fulham councillor Greg Smith, who leads on Residents' Services, about his cuts to the crime and anti-social behaviour budget. We asked Cllr Smith repeatedly to confirm the value of the cuts, which we believe total £2.212m, and he repeatedly evaded the question (see below). Why is he being so uncharacteristically coy?

Below are the relevant extracts from the council's February budget for everyone to see. The page numbers and a link to the full document are here. (Note: "Rationalisation" is just another word for cuts and "FTEs" are full-time equivalent jobs.)


We think this means:

• £2.2m cuts over three years. 
• A resulting reduction in on-street enforcement, out-of-hours services, police working hours and Safer Neighbourhood Police Teams
• A loss of 12 full-time policemen and other crime-fighters or a loss of a greater number of part-timers.

If Cllr Smith still disagrees, let him drop the waffle and tell us clearly what figures he is working to.