Sir – On Tuesday, August 13, an armed robbery took place in the family-run shop in the village of Wolvercote.

As one of the shop’s regular customers, I feel really sorry for the hard-working family with young children who were subjected to this vicious attack.

My experience of living in Wolvercote for about 20 years is that overall it is a rather safe place although, like most places, not exactly crime free. The robbery took place in full daylight in the early afternoon and this is the sort of crime which might have been avoided by having more police officers on the beat. It is known that the mere presence of police officers in the streets is a deterrent to crime. Government cuts to the police force mean that their resources are likely to be concentrated in urban areas, making places like Wolvercote more vulnerable to crime.

Public money needs to be spent on more police officers and not on police commissioners that nobody wants, as demonstrated by the low turnout at the elections. I would be prepared to pay more tax to ensure that the police are well resourced in order to keep all of us safe, rather than having unnecessary police commissioners who are politically-driven appointments.

Simonetta Manfredi, Wolvercote