More welcome merger decision delay

Cambridgeshire MPs have welcomed the recent Lords vote, reports the Cambridge Evening News.

Cambridgeshire South-East MP Jim Paice, a former Tory police spokesman, said: "This is good news. I hope the Government just accepts defeat and abandons the plans to merge Cambridgeshire."

Cambridge Liberal Democrat MP David Howarth said: "I hope enough Labour MPs will join with us in opposing the mergers to force the Government to drop the idea."

The Redditch Standard reports that the chairman of West Mercia Police Authority has welcomed the decision to delay plans to force it to merge within the next 12 months. He said the force would continue to campaign to secure a strategic police service for people living in the West Mercia force area.