I APPLAUD the Police and Crime Commissioner for drawing attention to the risks to our security that will result from any further cuts in the policing budget (November), and the points made about maritime surveillance being cut in the same item, but that is only part of my the fear I have.

Cuts in funding to councils also carry serious risk.

Some communities are already being isolated, and there’s more to come, but the cuts to youth services have largely happened in most areas (Poole’s not quite as far down the road), which is exactly what radicals – the fake religious and the fake nationalists – will start to exploit.

On policing, the neighbourhood approach that includes PCSOs has meant that the police and other agencies have been able to work closer together and share information and resources.

If you factor in the youth work, and greater contact with communities through the whole Safer Neighbourhood Teams ethos, you can begin to understand one possible reason why several incidents might have been averted this year alone.

Ten years or so ago, the government of the day could see the writing on the wall, and started to pour in resources, including in our area, to build better links and improve community cohesion.

This has paid dividends.

This current government, obsessed by cuts well beyond what was needed, have taken their eye off the ball.

The government needs to stop being one sided and obsessive, and start to look at alternatives – like collecting the missing taxes, not cutting the tax paid by the wealthiest and highest earners, and looking at other taxes that could be up-rated by a small amount without causing too much pain. Though I risk adverse comment, I’m paying some 25 to 30 pence less a litre for my petrol than I was a couple of years ago.

Surely a modest rise in the tax to support public transport, or avert other cuts, might help.

Our local MPs should stop jumping on bandwagons and start to do their job, looking at ways of protecting the very fabric of our society from endless cuts.

TONY TRENT (former councillor)

Fraser Road, Poole