Met at 'breaking point' over security

Scotland Yard resources are stretched to breaking point as police officers work round the clock to combat the terrorist threat to London.

Commissioner Sir John Stevens told a Metropolitan Police Authority meeting today how officers are sleeping in their vans and at their stations as leave and rest days are cancelled. There is real concern that officers could become sick and stressed by the level of work they are having to do.

Special constables and even traffic wardens could be drafted in to patrol the streets in an effort to reassure the public. Sir John said: "It is not satisfactory but we are living in difficult times."

However, the meeting also heard that, because it will have overspent by up to £14 million, the Met faces a financial crisis which could lead to dramatic cuts in overtime and reduce the number of officers on the beat. There is a possibility Scotland Yard could even go "bankrupt" due to the extra £1million a week being spent to combat the terrorist threat.

Officers are to be trained to "beef up" the antiterrorist squad and a special unit has been formed to deal with the threat of anthrax. The Yard is responding to 100 calls a day from people who think they have opened a letter containing the substance but so far none has been found in Britain.

Despite the IRA announcing it is to begin decommissioning Sir John said the threat from Republican groups, especially the Real IRA, had not diminished thus putting extra pressure on resources.

The Commissioner also confirmed his officers would "vigorously pursue" any mullahs based in London who were inciting racial hatred.

The Met's reserve fund of £17million is expected to run out by the start of December and the Yard desperately needs additional funding by Government, Sir John said. Police chiefs and the MPA - the elected body in control of the Met's finances - are in daily discussion with the Home Office to secure extra funding.

MPA members today warned that if the extra money was not found there would not be enough resources to deal with a terrorist

attack. The predicted £14 million overspend has led to cost-cutting plans bound to trigger uproar among the force's 23,000 officers.

Overtime will be restricted to counterterrorist work and other key priorities. Despite senior officers insisting crime fighting will not suffer there are fears that officers in boroughs such as Southwark - already 50 understaffed - will struggle to cope.

A Police Federation spokesman said: "A ban on overtime will cause us real problems because it will take officers off the streets.î

The MPA was told only three weeks ago that excess spending would be only about £4.6 million. However the amount needed for police pay was underestimated. The cost of policing the Notting Hill Carnival and the May Day riots spiralled to more than £5 million.

The Met has had to put a freeze on the recruitment of civilian staff and officers will now be charged more to eat in staff canteens.

The use of mobile phones and pagers is to be reviewed, and work on forensic and DNA advances is to be slowed.

The IT programme, described by Met Commissioner Sir John as essential to bring his force out of the "dark ages" will be slowed.

MPA chairman Lord Harris of Haringey said: "There has to be some very intense scrutiny of the money spent and we expect better standards of financial management."

Deputy chairman Richard Barnes added: "Technically the Met can't go bust but it can go into administration."