The man in charge of policing in the capital has promised to restore Kingston’s depleted PCSO numbers.

Bernard Hogan-Howe, the new Metropolitan Police commissioner, promised to end a recruitment freeze, which has led to 10 fewer support officers in Kingston and hundreds fewer across London.

But he stopped short of promising to reverse a decline in the number of sergeants, which has seen 10 wards in Kingston sharing.

The Met was handed a £90m grant by the Government two weeks ago to pay for an extra 1,000 officers.

Speaking at a roadshow event in Kingston University on Wednesday night Mr Hogan-Howe said: “Without knowing the £90m was going to be in the bank there was a recruitment freeze.

“It is something we need to remedy and we’ll do it as quickly as we can.

“It won’t be next week but it will happen.”

He estimated it would take between six to 12 months for the numbers to recover but said many PCSOs would be promoted to PCs leaving more gaps in the meantime.

Six wards in Kingston are missing one PCSO, with St Marks and Surbiton Hill wards missing two out of the three they are supposed to have.

Munira Wilson, a Liberal Democrat London Assembly campaigner, who had criticised the reduction in PCSOs, said: “It is good that eventually something has happened although we didn’t get the timelines the recruitment freeze will be lifted.”

And Liberal Democrat councillor Neil Houston, who asked the question about PCSOs, said: “It is going to get worse before it gets better.”

But Tony Arbour, Tory Assembly member, said: “I’m concerned about any reduction in the number of police but it does depend on what they are doing.”

He said there were 36 more police officers and 57 more special constables on Kingston’s streets since Boris Johnson took over as Mayor and said the introduction of single patrolling had led to 2,416 more patrols a year.