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The Home Office should delay its controversial merger of Welsh police forces, Rhodri Morgan said today.

The Home Office has begun the process of mending fences with West Mercia Police following promises not to impose an unpopular merger on the force. Chief constables from the four forces in the region met Police Minister Tony McNulty for talks yesterday.

Meanwhile, Lincolnshire Police Authority have launched a public consultation exercise over the proposal to merge with Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Northamptonshire and Nottinghamshire.

And ...

BELPER'S MP Patrick McLoughlin has called upon the Government to reverse the "crazy" decision to merge police forces.

In a Parliamentary debate Mr McLoughlin questioned the need for the merger. He said the area covered by the proposed Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire and Northhants 'super-force' was too diverse and there would be a lack of local accountability.

He added that the Government had not said how the merger would be funded.
Mr McLoughlin said: "I want to persuade the Government not to go down that road, as the merger has no local support."

Mr McLoughlin criticised the Government's intention to push ahead with the mergers despite objections from the forces affected. People in the regions were against the moves and local accountability would be lost, he said.

"Local politicians do not want the merger to go ahead, as we feel that it will prove counter-productive in the fight against crime. Most important, local people do not want the changes. They want a local, accountable, responsive community service, not a large, unwieldy and remote one.

"I have not yet met anyone in Derbyshire who wants the merger. The police do not want it, Parliamentary representatives do not want it and local people do not want it. So why on earth go forward with the changes?"

Tony McNulty, the new minister for policing, security and community safety, described the debate as "extraordinarily useful".

"The present model is some 30 years old and, purely in terms of the development of society since then, bears greater scrutiny," he said.

Mr McLoughlin called on his constituents put their opinions forward into the consultation process.

We're still waiting to find out who - apart from a few policemen - actually favours this.