The borough's top cop has had to step in after officers used an official police email account to implore community representatives to help them fight Government cuts.

Members of Earlsfield Safer Neighbourhood Panel, which includes councillors, business owners and a prison worker, were contacted last month by officers using an official account.

The email read: "Please support us against the Central Government decision to dismantle all the Safer Neighbourhood Policing Teams in London."

It then linked to a petition available on ipetitions called 'Save Neighbourhood Policing in London'.

Police forces across the country are fighting an impending change to the way Government allocates funds to policing, with Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, Met police commissioner, one of the leading campaigners against the move.

Despite this, Wandsworth Borough Commander Richard Smith was quick to react to the misuse of the police account.

In a follow up email to those contacted he wrote: "You recently received a link to a petition, which had been forwarded via an MPS Safer Neighbourhoods email account.

"This was not an appropriate use of this account and we are taking steps to prevent any repetition.

"Thank you for your continuing support for policing in your area of the borough."

A police spokesman later confirmed the officers responsible have been spoken too, adding: "All police officers and police staff who have access to social media accounts have since received enhanced training to ensure all postings and usage is compliant with MPS and confidentiality protocol.

"No formal complaints have been received to this date."

The incident, and the impending cuts, has seen one former policeman who left the Met in the summer, give his insight into the problems behind the scene in the capital's police force.

The officer, who wished to remain anonymous, when the Conservatives formed the coalition government in 2010, the Met started to see cuts meaning he was denied a shot at promotion after his probation period.

When the promotion freeze ended in 2014, he was already thinking of the next steps.

He said: "The cuts the Met now face is £1.2billion.

"I got to the point where I thought, where do I want to be in five to 10 years?

"I've now chosen an industry which is growing not dying."

In January, the force is expected to make £800 million in cuts until 2019, after £600 million which had been made since 2011.

The former officer added: "It is not a career for life anymore.

"You have to think, if I was leaving university now with a BA and an MA would I go into the police service?"

He also expressed frustration at the cuts in numbers in the safer neighbourhood teams.

Figures show that 3,170 PCSOs have been cut from the service since 2010.

In Wandsworth, the number of PCSOs has gone from 119 in May 2014 to 24 in August 2015.

Official Met figures show a rise in total crime in the area, including a rise in domestic crime, racist and religious crime but a drop in robbery and burglary from September 2013-14 until September 2014-15.

October 15: Borough-based forces could be axed, commissioner says

May 2015: No more stations to close

In March 2013, Jubilee House, in Putney Bridge Road, Battersea Police Station, in Battersea Bridge Road, and Tooting Police Station, in Mitcham Road, were confirmed for closure to the public in the final Mayor's Office for Police and Crime's (MOPAC) report.

In May of this year, the Met confirmed that no more police stations would be closed.

Mike Penning, Minister for Policing, Crime, Criminal Justice and Victims, said: "Police reform is working and crime has fallen by 8 per cent year-on-year and by more than a quarter since 2010, according to the independent Crime Survey for England and Wales.

"Over the last five years, frontline services have been protected, public confidence in the police has gone up and crime has fallen to its lowest ever level.

"The changes we have made since 2010 have made it easier for the police to do their job by cutting red tape, scrapping unnecessary targets, and giving officers the discretion to use their professional judgement.

"Decisions on the operational deployment of resources are matters for Chief Constables, in association with Police and Crime Commissioners, but there is no question that the police still have the resources to do their important work.

"As HMIC has shown, what matters is how officers are deployed, not how many of them there are in total."