Councillor Leonie Cooper, Labour's London Assembly candidate for Merton and Wandsworth

Congratulations to your reporter Omar Oakes for uncovering the quite scandalous shortages in the Merton safer neighbourhood teams, with only two teams out of 20 at full strength.

Your map illustrates perfectly the problem we have with the current Conservative Mayor and City Hall administration - they simply do not take our safety seriously.

Having announced he would chair the Metropolitan Police Authority, the current Mayor then decided that was boring and gave it to someone else.

He is committed to reducing police - both now and after the Olympics - and running vacancies all over Merton is a step down the path towards those permanent reductions.

Ken introduced the safer neighbourhood teams and, as your report says, is completely committed to restoring them and restoring our team sergeants.

We need our local eyes and ears to nip crime in the bud - and full-strength SNTs are exactly what we need.

We need to cut crime, not police.

 I hope your readers bear this in mind on the 3rd May, and vote for the Labour team for London.

Make sure your voice is heard by sending your letter to: letters@wimbledonguardian.co.uk

Click here to read more letters from Wimbledon Guardian readers.