COUNCILLORS moaning about vandalism have been told by police commissioner Anthony Stansfeld to complain to David Cameron instead.

Mr Stansfeld, Conservative Police and Crime Commissioner for Thames Valley, said Witney Town Council “might” want to raise cuts to policing – planned for £105m over the next six years – with their Tory parliamentary candidate.

He was responding to a letter from the council complaining about levels of vandalism in the town and the cost of repairs.

Mr Stansfeld’s March 24 letter read: “You should know that although crime is at a 25-year low in Thames Valley, the numbers of police officers is being reduced considerably as a result of financial cuts of nearly £105m over a six-year period.

“We have already taken out £59m and have to take out a further £45m over the next three years. The inevitable reduction in officers will not help us to keep vandalism at the current low level.

“You might like to raise this issue with your MP.”

The council’s facilities manager Claire Swan had written to both Mr Stansfeld and the Prime Minister on March 18, expressing concern that no one had been prosecuted after the council spent £10,000 on repairs to damage caused by vandals over the previous six months.

Mr Stansfeld’s response, having been leaked barely a month before the nation goes to the polls, was described as “damning” for the Conservatives.

Labour candidate for Witney Duncan Enright called the letter a “disgrace”.

He said: “This is unprecedented.

"He is a Tory crime commissioner and he has the Tory Prime Minister bang to rights. All the evidence shows that the police force is creaking at the seams.

“The fact that the criticism comes from within his own party makes it all the more damning.”

But following the leak, Mr Stansfeld, elected to head the Thames Valley force in 2012, told the Oxford Mail the cuts were the fault of the last Labour government.

He said: “The only reason the police are being cut is the requirement for austerity, which is necessary because the last Labour government left the country’s finances in such a disastrous mess. With the finances now improving I hope it will not be necessary to make further cuts.”

On Thursday the Oxford Mail revealed that TVP could axe more than 650 police officer and staff posts to save millions in the next three years.

David Cameron did not respond to requests for comment.