THAMES Valley Police has tried to reassure residents that it will not halve the number of officers in one of its neighbourhood teams.

Sergeant Gavin Ward attempted to ‘dispel a recent press article’ in this paper at a meeting of Grove Parish Council in March.

He told councillors that the neighbourhood policing team for Wantage and Grove was being ‘remodelled’ with effect from June 1 to create a ‘24/ 7 emergency vehicle team, a police investigation team and a problem solving team’.

He said re-modelling of the police neighbourhood team would enable a ‘redeployment of resources’ and allow it to ‘be more flexible to tackle police incidents’.

The claim that the re-modelling would result in the number of bobbies on the beat being halved came from county councillor for Wantage and Grove Jenny Hannaby.

She told this paper that she had heard from a reliable source that the number of Police Constables and Police Community Support Constables (PCSOs) would be reduced in Wantage and Grove from four to two of each.

In a series of statements the force refused to deny the claim, but said it was ‘looking at the way in which it delivers local policing services to communities’ with a view to changing how it delivered neighbourhood services.

Sgt Ward also revealed that he that he is leaving the local Neighbourhood Policing team to take up one of the roles in the ‘problem-solving team’ based at Didcot, and that Wantage and Grove’s new Neighbourhood Sergeant Kevin Hickman, based in Abingdon, would be in place ‘in the coming months’.