THE success or failure of Bexleys biggest ever petition may not be known until 2003.

The 37,000-strong plea for more police officers in Bexley has now been presented to the Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA) by Val Clarke, the chairman of the Bexley Police/Community Consultative Group which launched the petition.

She gave a five-minute presentation to a packed committee meeting, explaining Bexley felt the formula used to allocate officers to boroughs across the Metropolitan Police area was unfair to Bexley.

Although the borough does not have the lowest crime rate in the capital, it has the fewest police officers half the average number for a London borough.

Among those at the meeting to hear Bexleys case were the Met Police Commissioner Sir John Stevens, assistant commissioner Ian Blair and six police commanders.

But the MPA and the Met are to carry out a review of the resource allocation formula which decides how many police officers are allocated to each area, and this may not be finished until 2003.

After the meeting, MPA chairman Sir Toby Harris said: The MPA sympathises with Bexley residents who feel vulnerable because they believe there are not enough police officers to cover the 27 square miles of the borough.

Since the Bexley petition was collected, the number of officers in Bexley has risen, but not enough to address local concerns.

Allocating police resources is a complex problem which, at present, is determined using the resource allocation formula. This looks at a variety of criteria and local factors.

It is this formula which is currently under review, to see if it meets the present-day needs and expectations of local communities.

We hope to reach a conclusion soon and will keep the residents of Bexley informed of developments.