THE upward trend in robberies since last year has continued with a dramatic hike in September.

When the Guardian reported a steep rise in personal robbery statistics for August compared with last year, Supt Stewart Rivers said the rise in local crime was a direct consequence of officers being moved temporarily to central London in the wake of the London bombings.

He said that it had stopped and the borough once again had the resources to tackle priority crime.

But according to statistics on the Metropolitan Police website, 206 personal robberies were recorded for September this year, against 115 for the same month last year a rise of 79 per cent.

Actual bodily harm statistics also rocketed, with September's figure up to 230 compared with 149 for September 2004, a rise of 54 per cent.

A local police spokesman said: "Senior officers are aware and acknowledge that performance figures over the previous months show an increase in crimes when compared with the same period last year.

"This is taken extremely seriously and officers are endeavouring to resolve the issue.

"The borough has highlighted key areas to address and will be reviewing a number of areas. They also aim to refocus resources in a continued effort to reduce crime across Waltham Forest."

Cllr Barry Smith, cabinet member for community safety, said last month that even in normal times when officers were not being taken elsewhere, the borough does not have enough police compared with other parts of London.

Cllr Smith and leader of the council Clyde Loakes want to meet London Mayor Ken Livingstone to ask for more police.

A council spokesman said: "Robbery and violence are problems caused by a small persistent group of offenders. The immediate effect of police being removed was to impair the ability to react to existing intelligence through lack of officers.

"In the longer term, the halt in gathering information during the abstractions has led to a loss of momentum while new intelligence is being gathered.

"We accept the figures will increase while we gather information on perpetrators."