MORE than £20,000 of taxpayers’ money has been spent on a council campaign for more police officers.

Figures obtained by the Guardian reveal the bill includes more than £10,000 on advertising and £1,000 on design work.

The 'Calling For Back-up' campaign was launched with cross-party support in 2009.

It aimed to persuade decision makers that the number of officers in the borough should be brought up to the levels in neighbouring areas with similar levels of crime.

The council argued that the formula used to allocate police resources is flawed, with Waltham Forest classed as an outer London borough despite having problems which are traditionally associated with inner city areas.

Campaign spending has also included more than £3,000 on an event at City Hall in 2009, £4,000 on "supporting materials" and £860 on street stalls.

Conservative opposition leader Cllr Matt Davis claims the Labour leadership is wasting money in a time of cuts to score political points against Tory mayor Boris Johnson.

Cllr Davis said: "You have to wonder whether this £20,000 would have been better spent on recruiting Special Constables in the borough which would have the same sort of desired effect.

"And you would think that advertising like this needs to be seen by the people that make the decisions in central London, but the fact the advertising is all here suggests it's being done more for party political reasons, which is why we stopped supporting it."

But the council claims that while the campaign is yet to secure any new permanent officers, it has helped the borough gain extra resources.

A spokeswoman said: "Without this communication we would not have received the extra attention from the Metropolitan police, resulting in the temporary allocation of officers which has been between 50 and 70 police officers a day."

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