A 30-year-old group that independently examines police in Harrow looks set to disband after it became the only borough in London to have its funding axed.

The Harrow Police Community Consultative Group (HPCCG), which has been scrutinising the work of officers for nearly three decades, announced it had lost its funding from the Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA) at a meeting on Monday night.

The watchdog’s panel is made up of police officers, councillors, MPs and safer neighbourhoods representatives, and holds quarterly public meetings to examine the police’s work and encourage community cohesion.

But despite all 32 other London boroughs continuing to receive funding, three applications from HPCCG were rejected by the MPA, which said the group had failed to correctly submit its funding application.

Last year, the leader of Harrow Conservatives, Councillor Susan Hall, questioned spending on catering and other items from the group’s budget after it was asked to reveal its accounts by Harrow Council.

But the group had not kept detailed accounts since it was set up and could not provide the level of detail requested of it by the MPA, although it did explain expenditure that was queried.

Chairwoman Sonoo Malkani stepped down after ten years in the role on Monday. She said she felt the group had been used as “a political football” for the last year and accused politicians of trying to undermine its work.

She added: “They’ve said to us we no longer exist and we have to find our funding somewhere else – how are we meant to find £50,000?

“Our job is to have an independent group to scrutinise the police – but at the moment, we are in limbo – I’m sorry, but this is a whitewash. I would like Boris Johnson to take a look at this.”

Merlin Crescent resident Jack Welby, who was one of around 50 people to turn up for Monday’s meeting, said he was “disturbed” at the decision.

He added: “Now we’ve got no group and there’s no election for new committee members – I’m rather disturbed this group is gone.

“We want to get a new group going as soon as possible – probably within three months.”

Over the past two years, the MPA – which has now been replaced by the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (MOPC) and is controlled directly by Mayor of London Boris Johnson – has given the group £100,000.

In a statement, the MOPC said: “Harrow PCCG was given three separate opportunities from June to October 2011, to submit a funding application based on the set MPA criteria.

“At each opportunity, support and advice was provided to the management committee by the MPA borough officer.

“On October 31, the chair of Harrow PCCG was advised the final funding application had not met the required MPA criteria and on this basis, the MPA advised the Harrow PCCG management committee that it could not release any further funds to the group.”