THE new government must move rapidly to restore the ravages to public services in Surrey carried out by their predecessors over the past decade, especially in the area of policing, says David Munro, the Surrey Police and Crime Commissioner.

Mr Munro was speaking after the general election last week and congratulated the county’s 11 Conservative MPs, including Jonathan Lord in Woking and Michael Gove in Surrey Heath.

“Surrey remains a Tory county, and for that I congratulate them. But there’s no excuse now for not giving the county its fair share of central government money to restore its public services so cruelly decimated since 2010,” he said.

“I’m particularly concerned with policing of course. The last decade has seen savage cuts which have put Surrey Police under tremendous strain, although I think they’ve gone a great job under difficult circumstances.”

Mr Munro’s appeal came as the police made several appeals for information about crime in Surrey, including a robbery at knifepoint at Heaters Bakery in New Haw on Saturday 7 December, a burglary at a Co-op in Addlestone and an altercation between a man and a woman on College Road, Woking  at around 9pm on Sunday 10 December.

The PCC said: “Work to restore Surrey Police to its proud position as one of the best forces in the country is well underway, with significant improvements over the last few years. But there’s more to go and that will require proper funding and support from central government. I look forward to working with Surrey MPs and other authorities to make the case for that even more forcefully.”

For the full story get the 19 December edition of the News & Mail