Thumbs down for police plan

The Bromsgrove Police and Community Consultative Group held an urgent meeting last week to discuss plans to merge West Mercia with West Midlands, Staffordshire and Warwickshire.

There was unanimous support for the force to stand alone and strong objection to any amalgamation.

Group chairman Mary White said: "We have a very different force covering the largest landlocked area, which had been well managed in spite of low funding.

"With good management West Mercia has no debt, the other three forces we would amalgamate with would all have considerable debt. In spite of our low funding, our performance has been assessed at the top."

West Mercia gets £94 per head of population from central government, while the West Midlands gets £167. Mrs White said the force has been brought up to its present standard by a council precept for the police being raised to £80 per head of population.

She added that other public service amalgamations had not produced financial efficiency, it was usually quite the reverse.

The group has also criticised the short time which was taken over the decision. Mrs White said it had been 30 years since the last major re-organisation of force areas and that was considered carefully over two years. But this one had been proposed in "indecent haste."

The proposal was made on October 19 and final submissions on the subject must now reach the Home Office by December 23.

West Mercia Police Authority has said that more than 1,000 people have registered their views about the future of policing in the area.

Hundreds had visited its website and completed a survey or phoned a freephone number to register their views.

Residents' views will form part of the report presented to Home Secretary Charles Clarke. The authority will meet in December to determine its preferred option for the future delivery of policing services.

For more details log on to www.westmerciapoliceauthority.gov.uk