THE Chief Constable of West Mercia Police has said a recent review of policing supports the direction in which the force is moving.

Chief Constable Paul West welcomed Sir Ronnie Flanagan's report when he addressed the police authority meeting but said there was little for them to do. "There is limited scope for us at this stage to take any action on the ground," he said.

"It supports our current direction of travel."

The review of policing made 33 recommendations, and Mr West said at least 22 of these applied to national bodies.

With the remainder, some were about budget which were "welcomed" by the force. Mr West said there were also a number of schemes being piloted in other areas and until the outcome of these there was very little the police could do.

"The remainder of the recommendations are sound and make sense," Mr West added.

The report suggested some serious changes in the way Britain is policed. For example to completely overhaul the way stop and searches are carried out and to replace some jobs such as staffing police station front desks with non police officers.

Recommendations also said millions of man hours could be saved by cutting red tape.