Call for referendum on police mergers
Call for referendum on police mergers
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Tuesday, 11, Apr 2006 05:26
Charles Clarke has today been urged to call a referendum over the implementation of nationwide police force mergers.
The home secretary today confirmed that five new forces - or superforces as they are known - will be created in Yorkshire and Humber, the Midlands, East Anglia, the south-east and southern England.
That is despite fierce protests from a number of forces, who will now have until August 11th 2006 to object. The mergers are set to begin this autumn with a view to the new forces starting work in April 2008.
But the Conservatives have demanded that the proposals be put to public consultation, with the shadow minister for police reform, Nick Herbert, accusing the government of "forcing through" the amalgamations with "insufficient debate".
"This is a matter of constitutional significance and the public should be given their say through a local referendum," he added.
The police forces set to merge are: Humberside, North Yorkshire, South Yorkshire and West Yorkshire; Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire and Nottinghamshire; Cambridgeshire, Norfolk, and Suffolk; Bedfordshire, Essex and Hertfordshire; and Surrey and Sussex.
Hampshire, Kent and Thames Valley forces will continue to operate as individual units and the Home Office has agreed to foot the £500 million bill for the mergers from its police budget.
"I am satisfied, on the basis of the protective services assessment undertaken by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) and our evaluation of the financial and other aspects of the business cases submitted to us in December, that it would be in the interests of the efficiency or effectiveness of policing for the.forces to merge," Mr Clarke said in a written statement today.