Losing the equivalent of 44 full-time police officers over three years has not resulted in a worse service, Conservative London Assembly member Tony Arbour has said.

And he said the perception that there were fewer police on the street was not necessarily correct.

The AM for South West London, which includes Kingston, said: “It is true that police officer numbers in total have declined, but so equally has crime.

“The decline in police officers is also related to what the police officers actually do.

“It does not matter how many you have got, if they are all sitting in the office playing Angry Birds."

Kingston also lost the equivalent of nearly 30 police community support officers between April 2011 and March this year.

Labour’s London-wide assembly member Murad Qureshi said the number of officers lost was “deeply concerning”.

He said: “The vast majority of these officers have been lost from the borough’s police teams. Hollowing out the frontline like this cannot continue.

“Instead of cutting the police budget by 20 per cent and buying water cannons the government and Mayor should be properly resourcing the police."

Kingston police did not comment, saying officer numbers was a corporate matter dealt with centrally.

Met figures also revealed that between June 2011 and December last year, the percentage of people in Kingston who said they were worried or very worried about crime has fallen from 32 to 27.

- Chessington residents learned on Monday how the new local policing model would affect them.

Chief Inspector Bill Heasman told the Chessington District Residents’ Association that each of the borough’s 16 wards will have a dedicated constable and community support officer, who will not be ‘abstracted’ – dragged away to other areas.

He admitted the police had played their cards “close to their chest” regarding the plans, because the details had not been finalised.

And he was grilled by residents on neighbourhood problems like anti-social behaviour.

Several people at the meeting said communication between Kingston Council and the police had lead to their concerns going unaddressed.