Sutton Police could lose £20,000 as part of London-wide cuts to overtime costs.

Sutton Borough Commander Guy Ferguson said he was confident the loss could be absorbed so there was no noticeable impact on services.

However Member of Parliament for Sutton and Cheam Paul Burstow has said the cuts would have a “tangible effect”.

He said: “There will be no redundancies so the public will not notice anything immediately.

“However there will be a loss of flexibilty on front-line staff.”

The exact amount Sutton Police is set to lose was disputed earlier this month, with Mr Burstow claiming the figure was much higher at £200,000.

But a police spokesman said this was because some funding for last year came from entirely separate funding sources They were also given to performance-based projects which had an agreed time-limit.

He referred to a £112,000 for achieving crime prevention targets, which began in autumn 2009 and ends in 2011 and another £70,000 fund from the Home Office which is due to end in 2011.

Mr Ferguson said: “We are committed to managing our budget so that it does not impact on frontline policing in the borough.

“This means our work to reduce crime, and improve our service to public and the victims of crime, will continue unchanged and remain of paramount importance.”